The Price of Human Suffering
by Kamui Senketsu
Summary: Naruto's mean. She's jaded and bitter but there are three morons that refuse to allow her to remain as such. This is the story of Naruto and her Moron Trio of Uchiha. Rewritten version of my first story The Power of Human Sacrifice. Contains delinquent and emotion/chakra sensing femNaruto. Massive AU and some OOCness.
1. Rest Sweetheart, Darkness is Here

**Welcome to The Price of Human Suffering, the rewritten version of The Power of Human Sacrifice.**

 **I'll start by saying why I've chosen to do this:**

 **The first version was a complete disaster that I only wrote to see if anyone would actually read a fanfic I wrote. It started on a classic/utterly maddening cliché with Naruto being attacked by a mob and becoming a bitter soul. Then I rammed the story even deeper into crap when I just pulled everything out of my ass and didn't explain anything. Not Naruto's fuuinjutsu prowess, I didn't show her progressing while learning it, her training, I didn't deepen her relationships with Sasuke and Itachi properly. And let's not even get started on the foul language for absolutely no reason. I don't even know how that happened. But simply put the whole thing was poorly written and executed.**

 **This is an attempt to expand the universe I started in The Power of Human Sacrifice where Itachi and Shisui are born later and closer to the age of Naruto and Sasuke. I want to show how Naruto forms her bonds with the Moron Trio of Uchiha, and how they all grow stronger together as family and shinobi. There will be noticeable differences between Suffering and Sacrifice. (Hopefully in a good way and I don't just make everything worse).**

 **So without further ado, here goes.**

* * *

 _ **Prologue:**_

* * *

Some people hated her.

Some people pitied her.

Some people ignored her.

But no matter what, everyone knew who she was, even if she didn't know that herself.

She was ignored, shunned, and pitied. It hurt. It hurt like hell.

But she wasn't completely alone. There were rays of kindness in the cloudy gloom that was her existence.

Like the people at the ramen stand. Her firm but caring teacher, and the old man who was the grandfather to all.

But even still... Not even those rays of kindness always shined. She still returned home to no one after school. She still longed for the family she never knew.

She was lonely.

So very lonely.

* * *

"Why are you always smiling? You look stupid!"

 _'Because if I don't smile I'll cry.'_

"Why don't you get lost? Nobody wants you around!"

 _'Because if I had somewhere to go, I'd be there.'_

"You're annoying! That's why you don't have any friends! I bet your family abandoned you 'cause you're dumb!"

 _'I know. I know. But I don't know how to be somebody that people like. I don't know how to be somebody that_ I _like.'_

"Go away Naruto! Go away!"

 _'Where do you go when no one wants you?'_

* * *

She got older and there were still people who hated her. That feeling chilled her.

There were still people that didn't care about her, and that made her feel worthless.

There were still people that pitied her, and that disgusted her.

The kind people at the ramen stand, the firm and caring teacher, the grandfather to all. She could sense it on them when they interacted with her...

 _Poor thing. Poor thing._

 **Disgusting**.

She couldn't stand it.

So, she pulled away. Sure, there was genuine affection in their actions, but it wasn't as warm as the feeling she caught echoes of when a mother hugged their child, or when a father smiled down at their kid.

The affection didn't hold a candle to that warmth. The affection was always smothered by the pity.

 _Poor thing. Poor thing._

It enraged her.

What right did they have to hate her? What had she ever done besides exist?

What right did they have to ignore her? What made them more important than her?

What right did they have to pity her? Was she really so pathetic?

She was angry.

So very angry.

* * *

"Why don't you just go away? Don't you know no one likes you?"

"Why don't you shut up?"

"W-what?"

"Get out of my way. You're noisy."

"Hey! Don't talk to us like that!"

"Get out of my face."

"Who do you think you are? You're just a freak!"

"Ow!"

"H-hey stop hitting her!"

"Get off!"

"G-go get sensei!"

"Ow! Stop it Naruto! It hurts! IT HURTS!"

 _'I hurt. What about me? I HURT!'_

"NARUTO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"

* * *

She got a little bit older and things were still pretty much the same.

But she was not.

She didn't mind much if some people ignored her, she could live with that. That was fine. That was easy.

But she still didn't like to be hated, so she hated them right back. And she didn't like to be pitied, so to them she turned her back.

She stood tall and walked alone.

 _"Look… there's Naruto."_

 _"She has such a mean look in her eyes."_

 _"Let's stay away from her..."_

 _"I told you she was a freak."_

 _"Shhh! She'll hear you! I don't want to get beat up!"_

She shoved her hands into her pockets but kept her head held high.

She was tired.

So very tired.

* * *

"I have to maintain my spy network. I can't afford to take care of a kid Sensei, you know how important my work is."

"And you and I both know that she needs someone. Anyone. Yes your work is important, I will not say anything against that, but so is she. What's the point in any of the things we do for this village if not to care for the ones we wish to protect? And what good is being safe if the ones you want to protect are miserable? For god's sake Jiraiya she's your godchild."

"I know that…" He said weakly. "I… I know."

"You don't have to see her if it's too much. Just do something so that she knows someone besides me is thinking about her."

And though the Third didn't say it, they both knew he was thinking about how that lonely little girl would feel when she thought about the kind old man that bought her ramen. She was a sharp little girl. And though she enjoyed their time together, there would come a time when she wondered how much the Sandaime actually cared for her, or if he was just doing his duty to look out for her, as such was the job of the Hokage. He was obligated to love everyone in his village. And they knew that thought would tear into the girl's heart.

Hiruzen did not want to mention he sensed that time had already come. And it tore into the child, leaving someone bitter and too tired for their years.

She sensed it, how badly he felt for her, and she couldn't stand it. So when she turned her back, he allowed her to, fearing he would only make it worse.

"I just have to let her know someone else cares huh?" The Sage murmured. "She doesn't have to see me, and I don't have to see her. She just has to know."

Hiruzen had hope.

He knew it was not too late. She may be bitter, but she had not given up. Not completely anyway. And he knew his student still grieved for the loss of his own student, but time would soothe that pain. There would come a time when the Sage could look upon that bitter misunderstood child and not see the ghost of the great man that fathered her.

There would be a time when he would simply see her, and she would no longer be bitter.

So the old man had hope.

"Yeah…" His student went on, quiet. "Yeah I think I can do that."

* * *

She locked the door after her, as her Jiji had instructed her to do for her own safety after entering her home.

It was a little half past four, she'd stayed a bit longer at the Academy to sit on the swing that was often her only companion in the front yard.

She yelped, tripping over something that had obviously been shoved through her mailbox.

"What the…"

The little blonde looked down, surprised to find a journal on the floor by her door.

It was an old weathered thing, perhaps had been white at some point, but the years had turned it a tired gray. The cover was fraying at the borders, and the dark tape-like spine was peeling.

There was chipping kanji in chalk marker written across the front that made her chicken scratch look elegant. It simply read 封印術.

Fūinjutsu.

"That's weird."

The girl dropped into a squat, scooping the old journal up. She was pretty sure she heard Sensei prattle on about fūinjutsu at one point or another, but she personally hadn't been very interested. He'd said when they were a little older they'd be taught how to use storage scrolls and that was that.

She flipped the old thing to the first page, and a rather crisp card fell out. Curious, she picked it up and turned it around, surprised to find it addressed to her.

 _Naruto,_

 _I was around your age when I got interested in this art, and everything I learned at the very beginning I wrote in this journal. You should be able to understand the notes fine. You'll find the second journal in your mail in two months. Study hard brat._

 _-A Friend_

Her nose wrinkled in distaste, but those last two words gave her a strange feeling. She'd felt that fleeting pleasant sensation radiating from others as they laughed or smiled. She almost hadn't recognized it. It'd been awhile…

The blonde knew the kind old man she'd dubbed Jiji had not written the note. She knew his scrawl and the one on the card was different, written with something blotchy and not the thin little quill she often saw the old man using. She was definitely suspicious, but she was only eight. So, she carefully slipped the note to the back of the journal, and settled herself on her bottom.

For a long time she had refused to smile for others to prove that she was not something terrible hiding in human skin. And she would continue to do so, as she had given up trying to convince people who did not want to open their eyes to see.

She had grown sick of trying and was angry with everything, and had probably also formed into a rather unpleasant person. But she decided that simply living the best way she could was the only thing she could do. Change what you can, do what you can... The rest, just leave it be.

There was no doubt in her mind that some part of her had been shoved into the darkness, and that she was ruined. But it was fine.

She didn't care anymore.

 _'I don't have any friends.'_ She thought, thinking about the note. _'And I don't need them either.'_

"But... thanks for the book stranger."

And then she began reading.

* * *

 **You guys ready for this?**


	2. There's no Sunshine

**.**

 **I don't own Naruto.**

* * *

Naruto was nine now, and still a delinquent little wretch.

But she was a quiet one. At some point she'd been an exuberant brat, and in a way she still could be, but only when she was handing out a beating or angry. She was quite the picture too, a runt of a girl, wild sunshine locks framing her head and getting more tamable as they flowed down to her lower back, and smooth whiskered cheeks hidden by a surgeon's mask. She was usually clothed in a mesh shirt under a white track jacket, an ankle long black skirt, and dark shinobi sandals.

She was often referred to as a yankee, but her fellow street urchins had given her a moniker that was much darker.

Senketsu no Naruto.

Naruto of Fresh Blood.

It was because of her chronic bloody knuckles. She almost always had them. Her knuckles were usually scabbed over or torn to shreds from the constant brawling she emerged herself in.

Sure, she healed fast, and the same day she got wounds they were gone without a trace, but they always returned when she stepped across the threshold of her home the next time.

She'd taken to wrapping her fists up to her forearms in bandages, but by the end of the day they were blotched with red that had been reaped from her victims and red that resulted from pounding faces until her own skin split.

She was a menace, no one her age wanted to be in her way. Even some adults feared the savage look in her eyes when she started to fight.

Naruto was like an animal. A beast.

She always drew first blood, and she was always the last fighter standing, splattered in her opponent's blood.

 _'But still,'_ She thought wryly, bending into an alley swamped with evening shadows. _'There's always someone who wants to test me, and they get beaten just the same.'_

It was half past five in the evening, and Naruto was finally on her way home from a long session of detention with Iruka-sensei after beating Kiba to a pulp at lunch for calling her a she-man.

Of course taunts were never enough to get her to really lose her temper, so obviously he'd taken it a little farther than running his mouth. The Inuzuka had pulled on Naruto's long locks mockingly, asking why a manly girl like her wore her hair in such a girly way. Naruto hadn't cared about her punishment much, because she knew she was out of line hurting her peer like that. She just hadn't cared because she'd been so angry.

Presently, as far as she was concerned, as long as Kiba had learned to keep his paws off of her hair and anywhere else on her person, things would be just peachy. She knew Kiba would always be a big mouth, but he'd watch that bite of his while he continued to bark.

The girl snorted quietly to herself, ignoring the scornful sneer a man gave her when he recognized her. He shuffled past her, making a show of quickly leaving the alley she was entering. The waves of dislike he radiated rolled off her back as she continued on her way, turning right again as she reached the end of the alley and entered another neighborhood, a little shabby and quiet. Soon she was crossing the road and entering another alley.

There was one more thing that made others wary of the little blonde.

Tucked into the back of her jacket, was a katana length rosewood bokutō, or bokken. It was polished to perfection and carried in an equally red wooden sheath. The hilt of the sword was wrapped in black cord, and the guard was brown, shaped like the rounded petals of a flower. The edge of the bokutō was made of black chakra metal, and sharp enough to cut like a true katana. She never used the bladed end of her bokutō, always flipping it around to the blunted wooden side to avoid drawing anything other than mean bruises.

She'd found it in an abandoned kendo dojo, assuming she was doing no harm taking the weapon for herself. The blonde definitely felt she needed it more than a dust collecting, boarded up dump.

On a lighter note, Naruto wasn't always getting into trouble. She was actually quite the bookworm.

The blonde had been getting the old journals from her "friend" every few months for the past year.

She had questioned the Sandaime on the sender's identity after the arrival of the first volume of their fūinjutsu journals. But the old man said that they wished to remain anonymous until further notice.

Well, it'd been a full year, so Naruto figured she was never really going to know who her "friend" was. Though, the old geezer had told her that the deliveries of the journals were often sporadic because the owner of them traveled a lot.

So far Naruto had received five journals, and she had studied them all, never opening the next until she was confident in her ability to recite and understand what lied within the previous one.

The little blonde had been surprised to find herself quite taken with sealing. It was really rather interesting when you got past the bare bones of calligraphy and memorizing basic characters. It was such a complex art but the notes of her teacher (because she didn't have or need friends), had made those complexities easier to understand. When she wasn't sure of something she asked her Jiji, and though he admitted to not being a true master of fūinjutsu, he knew enough to tell Naruto was on the right track with her studies.

The old guy was pretty happy that Naruto had a nice, productive and quiet hobby, (even if it didn't keep her completely out of trouble).

Not only had she moved along in sealing, she had also gotten better at blocking out vibes from people that she had no desire to feel.

The nine year old was almost always closed off if her emotions weren't strong. And when they were, they only opened her up to the feelings of the people around her, which she despised and found overwhelming. Now that she had some semblance of control, she could still feel people, but it was mute in a sense.

She was aware of everyone in her vicinity, but could feel their presence with no true specifics. If she had to describe such an awareness, she'd say it was like feeling someone standing behind you, but not knowing who it was.

Sometimes she still felt fleeting things when she was within close quarters with someone, like the man she had passed moments before on her way home. But as long as she was guarded, she didn't have to worry about being swarmed by the feelings of others. Her control had allowed her to patch up some of the bonds that she'd had as well.

Naruto wasn't as close to the Hokage as she had been when she was smaller, but she knew that he did genuinely care for her, so she didn't shut him out completely, and didn't feel negatively about enjoying his company when she wasn't being stubborn and went to visit him. She was very independent, and wanted to prove to the Sandaime that she did not deserve, nor desire his pity.

Even so, the old man was the only person she truly felt was worth the effort of maintaining a positive bond with. Iruka-sensei was a close second, but she could feel she made him wary, like many others. When she opened herself up to his emotions, she could sense there was something about her that even she herself was unaware of that he felt was worthy of fear.

Though Iruka didn't dislike her, and only sometimes found her annoying. The feeling was mutual. Teuchi and Ayame Ichiraku were after Iruka-sensei simply because she didn't see them as much. Though she loved ramen and how light hearted they were, she knew she was never going to grow taller if she lived off of ramen. Yes they still felt bad for her, but they liked her when she wasn't being unapproachable and found her cute and charming. She liked them well enough, so she figured she had no reason to ignore them.

Those were the extents of her positive relationships.

 _'I really am a social butterfly huh?'_ She thought wryly.

Naruto's bloodstained hands were tucked into the deep pockets of her jacket, and she thoughtfully began chewing on her lip behind the cover of her mask as she suddenly sensed the fast approaching presences of two people around the corner. She just wanted to make her way home quietly to study an odd branch of storage seals that she had come across in her Teacher's fifth journal. The blonde didn't want any trouble, despite the common misconception.

 _'Should I turn around or keep going and ignore them?'_ She wondered.

If she turned around it'd take even longer for her to get home, which would be irritating. If she kept going she might get caught up in the obvious chase that was happening not far from her position.

The shrill panic and aggressive annoyance of the person closest to her was quite telling. They were the person being chased, and wanted to get away as quickly as possible.

Sometimes a person's feelings were so loud that even if Naruto was shielding, (what she called blocking out people's emotions), she felt what another person did anyways.

Soon, the blonde's option of avoidance was taken out of her hands, and a brown haired teen crashed into her line of view, skidding around a pile of crates, leaping over a mountain of trash, and shoving Naruto aside to zoom past her.

She yelped, quickly becoming angry as she caught herself. Without thinking she lurched forward, grabbing the back of the guy's shirt and yanking him back with all her might.

He fell back and she sidestepped, watching him collapse on his behind with a cry, wincing as he landed.

The guy quickly scrambled to his feet, but it was much too late.

Naruto swiftly moved farther back as another guy came blurring into her line of sight, but from above, his leg extended in a dropkick.

He descended on his prey, the heel of his black sandaled foot crunching into the center of the escapee's skull. Immediately, the brown haired guy crumbled into unconsciousness, and the one who had kicked him used his head as a springboard, back flipping and landing neatly on his feet.

He was shorter than the guy he had been chasing, and when he stopped moving, Naruto could clearly discern the Uchiha's fan emblem emblazoned on the gray armband around his upper right arm.

He reached his hand up to his right ear, pressing his fingers against the small black device there, speaking after a small distorted static noise.

"Shisui here," He spoke. "I've apprehended Yukari Yagami, the man responsible for the mass thefts in the market district. Requesting further orders."

He paused, before nodding to himself.

"Yes sir, will do." He promised. "Over and out."

His hand fell to his side, and he perked up as he turned around to face Naruto, who had been staring despite herself.

Now that the blonde was facing him, she could see that he wasn't much older than herself. He was taller than her, which was slightly irritating because god, everybody was freaking taller than her. His head was haloed by wild pitch colored curls, his skin was pale, and his eyes were the color of midnight. He had a tantō fastened to his back by a brown leather sheath that covered his shoulders and upper chest. Like many of his clan, he wore a high collared black shirt and black shinobi pants.

To Naruto's utter surprise, his lips lifted in a kind smile, and she sensed no lies in his vibes. He wasn't smiling for the sake of smiling.

"Oh hey," He greeted her, his hand coming up again to rub at his already wild hair. "Did I scare you? I'm sorry, I wasn't paying much attention to my surroundings."

"It's fine," Naruto found herself answering, albeit flatly.

She turned to go on her way. She wasn't looking to make idle conversation, as it wasn't her cup of tea.

She whirled around in a flare of gold hair, drawing her bokutō during the same movement, her wooden blade a burgundy blur before stopping, extended, its end halting a single millimeter from the Uchiha's nose. He was closer than he should have been. Naruto had sensed him move towards her, which had prompted such a violent reaction from her.

 _'What does he want?'_

When she met his eyes, she found they weren't alarmed as she had gotten used to seeing whenever she drew her wooden blade.

Though he did hold his hands up in a disarming manner, he didn't look the slightest bit offended, surprised, or nervous like he should've been.

"Watch it Uchiha," Naruto warned darkly. "I like my space. I'm fine with you staying right where you are and away from me. You get it?"

"Got it." He assured her cooly.

Naruto wouldn't be above admitting that his calm demeanor was irritating. She'd pulled a weapon on him and he couldn't even be bothered to react in any other way than to assure her that he wasn't trying to be offensive? Because the way that he was deliberately being careful not to move as she held her blade a breath from his face left no doubt in her mind that he was trying to make her comfortable.

She was the only one that was bothered. They both knew it.

 _'Annoying.'_ Naruto thought, eyes narrowing as she bared her teeth behind her surgeon's mask.

"Great." She said. "Now I'm leaving, and you're gonna do what you do, and I'm gonna do what I do."

The blonde took a neat step back, moving to retract her bokutō, and she could barely blink before the Uchiha's body blurred with dizzying speed, appearing again right before her, taking her wrist, and forcing her to lower it with a small sleight of hand. Naruto's bokutō was forced in between them as he stepped closer, close enough to be offensive, and stared her right in the eyes.

They were so close Naruto could see his eyes could appear to be black, but were actually metallic, flecks of silver scattered about his irises discernible in the evening light.

The blonde blinked in stunned silence at the pure show of speed he'd just demonstrated, as well as the unexpected proximity.

"Sorry about that," He said, nowhere near apologetic. "I felt threatened."

Naruto bristled.

 _'He's mocking me.'_ She realized. _'Why this sorry sack of shi-'_

"What are you doing?" The blonde demanded. "Let go of me."

"I could ask you the same thing, Sunshine." He answered. "Do you even know how to use this thing? Your form is terrible, and your hold is so wrong that I wouldn't even have to try hard to disarm you."

 _'Sunshine?'_ She snarled inwardly. _'Who does this prick think he is?'_

"Does it look like I care?" Naruto sneered. "Get off me now, before I beat your face in."

Said face lit up as the Uchiha grinned.

"Well aren't you just a bucket of rainbows." He drawled.

Naruto's teeth clenched. She would count to three, and if he didn't let go before then she was going to rip him so many new ones his mother wouldn't recognize him at the morgue.

One.

Two…

 _Thre-_

"I'll help you out." He decided, making his captive yelp when he changed his hold on her wrist and whirled her around without her consent.

Naruto found her back facing the Uchiha stranger, and his other hand moved around her to take her free hand.

To her absolute horror, her hidden cheeks blazed crimson.

The stranger folded her left hand around the hilt of her bokutō, moving his hand on her wrist to do the same to her right, positioning them in a uniform fashion that Naruto didn't recognize. It felt odd, but was definitely tolerable.

"This, is how you hold a katana Sunshine."

Naruto blushed brighter, stumbling when the support his form provided at her back disappeared in an instant.

She whirled around, but found him gone.

A moment later three men in Chūnin vests flashed into the alley, one hunkering down and tossing the passed out man on the ground (that she had honestly forgotten about) over his shoulder. The other two nodded at her in acknowledgement, and then they were all gone again in a flash.

Realizing that she was all alone and flushed like some idiot, Naruto exploded.

"There's no sunshine here you freaking prick!" She bellowed. "You ever touch me, or show me your stupid face again and I'll knock all of your teeth out!"

With a huff, she sheathed her bokutō and stormed away towards home, grumbling to herself.

Unknown to her, the very subject of her ire stood on the roof above her, her mood having her so riled that she hadn't sensed him.

He grinned and chuckled to himself.

"She's cute." He decided.


	3. Let's Be Friends

**Posted 09/1/17**

 **I don't own Naruto.**

* * *

For as long as Naruto could remember, she could sense certain things from the people around her.

She had never told her Jiji, and hadn't really had a reason not to tell him. Or maybe she just didn't want him to know how much the intrusive sensations from others bothered her. It didn't really matter, she hadn't told him and she probably was never going to. She loved him and everything, but it wasn't really any of his business.

Naruto had noticed that others didn't feel the same things that she did. And even if it was stupid, she didn't want to seem like even more of a freak. And she knew she would if people found out about her little "talent".

When Naruto got a little older, she realized that she could feel the emotions of others. Positive, negative, the in between, the unidentifiable. Her sixth sense didn't discriminate. She could feel it all. But there were limitations, and she wasn't certain if it was just because she was young and unrefined, or if it was just how her power worked.

There was no way Naruto could sense something and say it was without a doubt "happy". The feelings she perceived, they had different dimensions that she had dubbed the names people used to describe them. But there was no way to know for sure if that's exactly what she should call what a person might feel.

No feeling felt exactly the same for every person. There was always something that made it slightly different because everyone was different and felt things in different ways. There was also the factor that when someone was feeling something it wasn't always strong. But, even if it felt different from person to person, the sensation Naruto got from sensing what another felt was always similar, with a few defining factors.

Happiness felt like being tickled. It felt like grinning in warm sunlight.

Sadness felt cold, like plunging all the way into the bottom of dark waters and drowning in it.

Anger felt hot. It was unpleasant, like a glare received after doing something that you know wasn't right.

Jealousy was odd. It made you feel like a stranger in your own skin, as if you had no right to be walking around in it, and it made you want to hide.

There were many many emotions that Naruto had felt from others, and she wasn't sure she could name them all, because a lot were branch feelings from main things like happiness, sadness, anger, and the like.

But the most stark emotion she had ever felt was one that she'd had directed at her by people that she didn't even know. It confused her, and still did, because she didn't understand what she had done to make people feel so negatively about her.

It was hatred.

Hatred was such a deep form of something. It was most definitely negative, and made her feel like a stranger in her skin as jealousy did, though it certainly didn't mean anyone was jealous of her. It made her feel as if she had no right to be walking around, because how could she?

A person that made people feel like that had no right to anything. It also felt like anger, hot, no… scorching, a glare received for doing wrong. Her wrong being something she did not understand, something that she had done that she wasn't aware of. It felt like disgust, a slimy feeling slithering across her skin. She couldn't stand it.

It was hatred that had driven her to form mental shields. Hatred that forced her to grow stronger so that she could block out the emotions of the people around her. Hatred and pity alike had formed Naruto into the biting person that she was.

Of course not everyone hated or pitied her, some people felt neutral and uncaring towards her as they did towards anyone else they didn't really know. Naruto had found she preferred such indifference. It was nice, to be looked at or overlooked like anyone else. As if she was normal.

Some of her happiest times were when she was walking through a crowd, and no one looked twice at her because they simply didn't care. She was just another stranger, and that was that.

But this guy.

 _'This guy…!'_

He wasn't glancing at her and then away. He wasn't ignoring her and going on his way. He was looking at her. He was looking right at her with neither hatred, pity, or indifference.

He was looking at Naruto Uzumaki, and then he smiled.

It'd been two days since their unexpected meeting in the alleyway, when he'd made a complete fool out of her and flickered out of existence like he hadn't left her a stuttering and enraged mess.

It was Saturday afternoon, and the sun was blazing high in the sky, not a cloud in sight. Naruto had gone out to pick up a few things from the Ninja Tools Store. Ink brushes, ink pots, seal parchment, the like. She had not expected to walk out and find the Uchiha-prick from two days ago walking out of a dango stand across the way.

They met eyes, he looked right at her, with her paper bag clutched in her right hand, and he smiled.

People bustled about under the sun, vendors negotiated prices with customers, people laughed and snickered, and no one took notice to the two young shinobi immersed in their private little staring contest.

 _'No.'_ Naruto thought. _'Just… no.'_

She tore her eyes away from his twinkling pair, and turned to the left, beginning to make her way down the street.

The blonde didn't have the patience to deal with him and his honest smile. She barely had the patience to deal with anything. She'd given him a warning, so he'd better take it for what it was, or she would be knocking his teeth out.

Naruto's bokutō suddenly felt very prominent at her back. She would never admit that she had practiced holding it the way that the Uchiha had shown her once she'd gotten home. That wasn't anyone's freaking business.

"Hey!" She heard him call over the noise. "Wait up!"

No, she wasn't going to be doing any waiting. She was going to go home, she was going to pull out her new seal paper, and she was going to practice making the storage seal in her Teacher's fifth journal that she found was meant to seal intangible things. Like chakra. It wasn't to seal actual objects. The seal was written in such a way that if you activated it at the right moment, you could seal away a jutsu in progress, and then release said jutsu at another time.

Naruto quickly made her way through the bustling crowd, scurrying into a nearby alley so that she could get home without any hassle.

She liked traveling through Konoha's back alleys. It made getting around much easier, as not many people used those walkways.

Unfortunately for her, the blonde made the mistake of assuming that the Uchiha-prick would take a hint at her hasty retreat and get lost.

"Hey!" He called, (from way too freaking close behind her). "What's the rush Sunshine? Don't wanna say "hi"?"

Naruto bristled as she turned to face the black haired boy standing a few feet behind her.

"Who are you?" She spat, switching her bag to her left hand so that she could reach up and take hold of her bokutō's hilt.

The Uchiha cocked his head to the side curiously, brows furrowing slightly before he seemed to have a small epiphany, and smirked. Yes, he actually smirked at her, the jerk.

"You remember me, don't you?" He drawled, taking a step closer. "I thought we hit it off pretty well a few days ago."

Looks like playing dumb was not going to deter this guy. A pity really. Naruto rolled her eyes, hand dropping from her wooden blade. She would attack if he got any closer, because she seriously just didn't want to be bothered. Like, ever.

"I thought I told you if you showed me your stupid mug again I'd punch your teeth out Uchiha." Naruto growled, blue eyes threatening.

"You didn't tell me that," The Uchiha said, giving her an amused look. "You just yelled it and stormed off."

Once again, Naruto found her face heating behind the cover of her medical mask.

"You were there weren't you." She accused. "Somewhere around _laughing_ at me you piece of crap!"

The Uchiha shrugged and smiled.

"Maybe," He allowed. "But hey, I'm sorry about that. I was just pulling your leg, I wasn't trying to be too awful to you."

"I don't care." Naruto huffed. "Back off. And don't follow me anywhere else you freak."

She turned and started walking away, her piece said.

"You don't like me very much do you?" He asked, suddenly walking at her side.

Naruto sighed explosively, glaring at him as he kept pace with her.

"What was your first clue?"

He laughed, and for some reason Naruto didn't attempt to beat his face in.

 _'I'm getting soft.'_ She inwardly grumbled.

"My name's Shisui." He said. "Shisui Uchiha. What's yours?"

"It's screw off." Naruto grumbled.

Seriously, what was with this guy? He had to be the weirdest Uchiha she had ever had the displeasure of coming into contact with. He'd smiled and laughed more times than she had ever seen any of the Uchihas she had ever interacted with or observed as a whole.

"You know, you've got a pretty bad mouth." Shisui observed, not offended, just pointing out something he'd noticed.

"Yeah?" Naruto muttered. "Usually when I start cursing at people they take a hint and get lost. The really dumb ones are the ones you have to beat into the pavement."

She looked at him again to communicate that he fell into the category of "really dumb".

Instead of taking offense like she had intended for him to, he tilted his head, his brows lifting slightly, and his overall expression noticeably and pleasantly inquisitive. After that, Naruto couldn't help herself.

She opened herself up to his emotions. Not overwhelmingly, just enough so that she could scan the surface of him. So that she could feel what he did in that moment. But only in such a way that it could be likened to watching someone's body language.

Naruto certainly wanted to know what he wanted from her, why he insisted on bothering her when all she did was shoot him down and threaten to cause him bodily harm. But she didn't want to know enough to dive in too deep. She didn't want any of his secrets.

When Naruto felt him, she noticed that nothing in him hinted towards ill will, or anything negative towards her person. What he felt was something slightly intrusive, a poking sensation if she had to describe it.

Curiosity.

And there was something else he felt that personally annoyed her, but was not meant to be annoying, nor did it mean that he was annoyed. It was a subdued sort of bubbly feeling.

Amusement.

 _'This crap stain…'_ She gritted. _'He thinks this is funny?'_

"What's the matter Sunshine?" Shisui asked, still following her. "You got quiet all of a sudden."

"What do you know?" Naruto demanded. "Maybe I'm always like that and there's nothing sudden about it."

"Okay," He allowed.

 _'Ugh! Would you stop fricking smiling?'_ She growled. _'Get annoyed, storm off. I dunno, just stop being so freaking nice!'_

She didn't deserve it. She didn't deserve a smile that was so stupidly kind and honest. Why didn't he just realize that she was somebody that was better off left to her own devices?

"And stop calling me Sunshine." Naruto huffed. "It's stupid and makes no sense."

"Then tell me your name." Shisui baited.

"When fangirls realize they're creepy." The blonde shot back.

The Uchiha startled out a bark of laughter, looking at her with surprised dark eyes.

"That was funny." He said deliberately, as if he couldn't believe that she would say something that was actually amusing and not geared towards making someone uncomfortable.

Honestly, she couldn't even be irked by his reaction because she had surprised herself with that one.

Naruto stopped in her tracks, realizing that she was getting much too close to her apartment with her little leech still attached to her hip for her liking. Said leech stopped too, turning to look at her curiously.

But why?

What about her made him curious? What about her bad attitude did he find amusing? Why couldn't she just get him to leave?

"What do you want?" Naruto asked, exasperated, because not even she could be angry forever.

"What do I want?" Shisui echoed, shrugging. "I want to know your name."

Naruto balked, and she didn't know what kind of face she was giving him but it was enough to get him flashing that smile of his again.

She could sense that he wasn't lying. He didn't want anything in particular from her. He was just curious about her, found something about her pleasant, and wanted to know her name.

"Why?" She whispered. "Why do you want to know?"

Shisui reached up, scratching at the back of his head, his smile lulling down to a contemplative sort of look.

Finally, he shrugged again.

"I just want to know." He admitted. "Is that bad?"

She didn't know. _Was_ it? What was the harm? He wasn't looking to screw her over or cause her any trouble, and he hadn't been any more annoying than what she was used to. What about him made her so irritated anyways? Was it because she couldn't get him to fold like everyone else? Was it because he was tenacious in a way that wasn't overbearing, which made her realize that the only one being truly unpleasant was herself?

Naruto had no freaking clue.

It was so annoying.

The blonde found herself sighing again, but there was a tone of resignation in the short, quiet gust.

"It's Naruto." She muttered. "Naruto Uzumaki. Now get lost."

Shisui grinned at her, and allowed her to storm off again with no fuss, not following her any further as he watched her back bend a corner.

Naruto's ears caught aflame when his delighted laughter followed her, as well as a promise he called that put a fluttery sensation in her belly that she didn't understand, or like much because of the confusion it caused.

"See you later Naruto!"

* * *

Three days went by and it was Tuesday, well after Academy hours.

The sun would set soon and Naruto had decided that she would train a bit with her seals outside. Her Teacher's fifth journal had began introducing her to the idea of creating seals in different environments, because she wasn't always going to be able to draw them in the safety and controlled space of her home.

At some point she was going to need to draw a seal in the midst of battle, and she needed to be able to form equally beautiful seals under pressure, when wind was blowing, when noise was going off, and other factors that would be considered distracting.

That's what had her kneeling near a sparkling lake in one of Konoha's many tree surrounded training grounds, a large piece of parchment before her, anchored by four ink pots that sat on each corner. Her mask was resting beneath her chin, an ink brush between her teeth while her black smudged fingertips trailed the four prongs connected by an array of symbols and kanji, blue eyes scanning for any mistakes.

There was a breeze in the air, running through her hair, which she had pulled into a low ponytail at the nape of her neck.

The ink of her seal had dried a while ago, so she could safely finger the symbols she had drawn from memory without fear of smudging them.

It was the storage seal from her teacher's fifth journal, the one she had been studying for several days.

Tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, Naruto sat back, pulling the brush from between her lips and grinning when she found no mistakes.

"I did it." Naruto breathed.

Now all she had to do was find a way to test it out. But she didn't know any noteworthy jutsu. Just the three standard Academy ones that would do her absolutely no good. And don't even get her started on her completely pitiful execution of the bunshin jutsu.

Naruto rolled her eyes. She despised that dumb jutsu.

She was a little bummed, because she was itching to see how strong the storage seal was, and how powerful a jutsu could be before the seal proved to be too weak to hold it. She hadn't done much experimenting, as most of the journals had gotten her used to fūinjutsu theory, symbols, and memorizing/replicating.

 _'Another time then.'_ She told herself, pulling her surgeon's mask back over her lips and nose, hiding her whiskered cheeks.

She usually wore the mask because the ink from her fūinjutsu studies was quite potent, and sometimes made her a bit dizzy. She'd just gotten into the habit of wearing the mask all the time. It seemed to make people call her a yankee and delinquent even more, but whatever.

 _'Obviously I don't care because I'm always walking around in them anyway. You'd think that would make them shut up.'_

With a snort, Naruto began the process of capping her ink pots, and rolling her ink brush back into the cloth she carried it in to keep it from staining the inside of her backpack.

After her clean up, she rolled up the parchment that she had drawn the storage seal on, and slipped it into her backpack, zipping either side closed enough that the paper would stay but not be damaged.

Next, she picked up her bokutō, which was lying next to her bright orange bag.

"Oh wow." An unexpected voice called, sounding pleasantly surprised. "Naruto, is that you?"

"You _know_ it's me." She growled back, looking up and glaring fiercely at Shisui Uchiha as he walked through the path of trees that served as the entrance and exit to the training ground she was occupying. "If you didn't, you wouldn't have even said my name."

Shisui snickered as he made his way closer, plopping down in front of her.

"Now," He began cordially. "Before you go accusing me of stalking, I'm not. I come here to train every Tuesday and I have never seen you here before. So I'm the one that's surprised, okay?"

Naruto huffed.

He was telling the truth. She knew it. She never came to the grounds on Tuesday. Instead she did on Monday, but she'd had detention again, so she hadn't felt much like training and decided to go the next day after school.

Just her luck Shisui trained on the same grounds.

Naruto plopped back down on her bottom, turning so that she faced the river, folding her legs beneath her.

She rolled her eyes when Shisui predictably shuffled closer and faced the river as well, sitting at her right in the same position.

"I thought you were gonna train." She muttered, side eyeing him.

"Hm, yeah." He answered. "I will. In a minute."

A peaceful silence swelled between them. And then it was broken.

"Hey Naruto? What's your favorite color?"

Naruto looked at him, raising a skeptical brow at the sudden question.

"What the heck man?"

"C'mon Naruto, I'm not pulling your teeth out." Shisui whined, pouting at her. "Can't you just humor me?"

 _'Ugh.'_ Why did he have to be so reasonable?

"It's orange." She found herself murmuring.

What was it about him that made her return the honesty he so readily offered?

"Really?" He perked up. "That's surprisingly bright. Mine's green."

"Oh yeah?" Naruto snorted. "I thought all Uchihas liked the color of their souls. Black."

Shisui tried to hold back his sniggers, but did a poor job of it.

 _'Seriously? He's not even going to get mad?'_ She thought, put out. _'I just dissed his whole clan.'_

"There is something really wrong with what you said." Shisui chuckled after calming down. "But I can see why someone would say that. We can be a little gloomy."

"You think?" Naruto sneered.

"So, how old are you?" He asked, not deterred.

"I'm nine." She admitted.

"Oh?" He hummed. "I'm a little older then. I'm eleven."

Naruto wondered again why she was being so honest. Maybe because he was honestly curious about the things he was asking her about? No matter how unpleasant she was as a person, even she wouldn't feel right shooting someone down that wasn't trying to be unkind.

Their series of questions and answers went on for a while, long enough that Naruto noticed the sun beginning to set.

Shisui had learned that she adored miso ramen, and her favorite dish was red bean soup. She liked to study fūinjutsu, she was still an Academy student, and her favorite time of day was evening.

Naruto had learned that Shisui liked tempera, but his favorite food was salted onigiri. He trained in kenjutsu, he was already a Chunin, and his favorite time of day was midnight.

Another silence commenced before Shisui looked at her and asked something else.

"What about your friends?"

Naruto's expression fell completely flat, and she responded with an equal amount of emotionlessness.

"I don't have any friends."

"Why?" Shisui pried, and she noted that he had asked that gently, as if he was worried about hurting her feelings.

 _'Moron.'_ She thought. _'There's no way you should care about how I feel after all the trouble I've been giving you until now.'_

"Because I don't need or want them." The blonde answered.

Shisui looked into her eyes for a long moment, and she looked back, refusing to soften on the matter.

"Everybody needs and wants friends." Shisui said softly, lips turning down slightly.

Naruto didn't like it. It was weird to see him as anything but positive.

 _'It doesn't suit him.'_ She decided. _'Stop frowning you idiot.'_

Finally Naruto shrugged.

"Well that's useless 'cause I'm not everybody."

"Yeah, you're right." He agreed, not seeming so blue anymore. "You're not. But that's why I like you. You're not everybody else, and that's cool."

How could he like her? She was rude, foul mouthed, and violent to boot. There had to be something wrong with the guy.

 _'He's even more twisted than me.'_ Naruto thought, refusing to acknowledge how her mood lifted when he stopped looking so upset.

"Hmph." The blonde huffed.

For a moment they both looked away and just watched the water before them, how it rippled slightly under the playful breeze.

"Hey Naruto?"

"What is it _now?_ " The blonde scowled.

"Sorry, it's just... Have you ever had any friends?" Shisui wondered.

"Ugh, you're still on that?" She complained. "No, I haven't. I've always been a person with no friends and I'm fine with that."

"You're fine... but are you happy?" Shisui asked, head turning to catch her gaze.

"What's it to you?" She muttered, looking at him.

"It's not any of my business, you're right." He agreed. "But will you tell me anyway?"

Another silence spread between the two children sitting side by side in the training grounds. Birds chirped in the distance and the wind tickled through the trees.

For the first time it was Naruto that'd had enough of the silence. She knew Shisui wasn't going to stop freaking looking at her with those too keen eyes if she didn't say something.

"Alright!" She spat, looking away and out towards the waters. "Whatever. I guess I'm happy. Why does it even _matter?_ "

If she had been looking at him, she'd have seen that his eyes were calling her a liar. That he knew she was not happy, and that she hadn't been really happy in a long time.

"Hey Naruto?" Shisui murmured.

"What now Uchiha?" She groaned, fed up with this song and dance.

"Can we be friends?"

Something in Naruto's chest clenched, and she didn't know what to make of it, if it was positive or negative. She didn't know how to explain it so she ignored it.

"Why would you want something like that?" She asked darkly, staring down into her lap.

"I just do." Shisui said. "Can I have it?"

He was good at that. Saying something so simple, yet so vast that it knocked the breath out of her. She definitely hadn't known him long enough to say she knew him, but already she could tell that Shisui was full of surprises. He was so full of them, sometimes he made her surprise herself with how she reacted to him.

Naruto snorted, looking up at him, watching him watch her calmly.

"No way," She dismissed lightly, giving an almost smile-smirk- _thing_ under the safety of her mask. "If I ever wanted a friend, which I don't, why would it be you?"

She knew it was mean, and at that point she couldn't even tell if she really felt that way, but it didn't seem to offend Shisui. Nothing she did ever seemed to, (despite how hard she tried).

His laidback way of handling her abrasive behavior was enough to miff her, but it also intrigued her.

Shisui chuckled.

"You're mean Naruto." He grinned.

"So?" She shrugged, uncaring.

They sat there under the glowing sunset rays above, watching the river twinkle with different dimensions of evening color. Naruto didn't try to make him leave, and he didn't try to get her to talk to him again.

No, Naruto did not need friends, but company wasn't so bad every now and then.


	4. It Begins

**I don't own Naruto.**

* * *

After school on Wednesday, a day after Shisui had asked Naruto to be friends, said Uchiha was waiting outside of the Academy by the swing Naruto often sat on.

Naruto didn't understand why her masked face immediately burned like peppers, but it was vexing nonetheless. Her shoulders hunched and she hiked her backpack further up her left shoulder where one of the straps was resting, while the other one hung, empty.

She scurried over, as fast as her long skirt would allow her to move.

"What are you doing here?" She hissed when she was a foot away from him.

Shisui grinned.

"Whaddyou mean?" He chuckled. "I came to pick you up of course. If we're gonna hang out, we have to get to know each other and stuff. So I thought I'd come see you since I've got time off."

"What part of don't want or need friends did you not get?" Naruto snarled.

He appeared way too amused for a person that was being glared at so intensely.

"C'mon Naruto what's the harm?" He asked, giving her a winning smile.

Too bad for him she was about as easy to persuade as a mule.

"You can't just show up here." Naruto huffed, crossing her arms. "Don't you get how creepy this is? I barely know you!"

"That's why I'm here," He said patiently. "So I can get to know you, and you can get to know me."

There was literally something wrong with him. Why would he want to know her? Why would he want to be her friend? Did he have any common sense at all? Was he really so oblivious?

 _'Wait…'_ Naruto thought, eyes widening slightly before she caught herself.

That must've been it. He didn't know. He didn't know what the grownups around the village seemed to know about her. The thing that made her a taboo presence that not even she was aware of.

"You know that even if you weren't stalking me before, you are now." The blonde growled.

Shisui just looked at her innocently.

 _'I'll show you…'_ The blonde thought. _'See if you can smile like that after I'm done with you.'_

Naruto was sure that even if he never knew specifically what others seemed to, as long as he knew that there was something to be wary of, she could get him to back off.

"Okay," She said suddenly, eyeing him. "You wanna hang with me? Fine. Come on Uchiha."

Shisui perked up, obviously skeptical about her sudden change of heart.

 _'I guess he isn't as dumb as he acts is he?'_ She thought dryly.

Naruto briskly made her way into the center of the village, all the while Shisui kept pace with her at her side.

"Naruto where are we going?" He finally asked. "What's the rush?"

Just to contradict him, because yes she was a little petty like that, Naruto stopped abruptly.

People bustled about around her and Shisui as they stood in the center of the road, moving towards wherever it is they needed or wanted to be.

Naruto took a breath, and then she opened her shields, intentionally allowing her perception to widen, so that she could feel the emotions of others.

They were standing in the middle of the market district, so everyone that was moving down the road could pretty much see them.

And then when people began to recognize her, she felt it. Different levels of dislike, it prickled at her skin, giving her goosebumps. She could also read hints of curiosity and dismissal in the atmosphere, but she ignored those elements and searched specifically for what she had spent most of her short life running from.

A slimy, sludge like sensation slithered down her back, and something burned her.

 _'There…!'_ She thought, stepping into the path of a plump older woman dragging a small child along; probably her grandchild.

"Hello," Naruto greeted, as sweetly as she could muster without making herself gag. "How's it going?"

" _Ugh!_ " The woman exclaimed, as if she had come across something nasty at the bottom of her sandal.

Naruto suppressed a shiver when the woman's cold eyes sliced into her face.

Disapproval. Dislike. Wariness. Sadness. _Hatred._

"So you're having a bad day?" Naruto asked her kindly.

The woman harrumphed, turning her nose up at Naruto and storming away, muttering to her young charge.

"Stop staring at that girl Rina."

"Yes Nana." The child murmured.

Shisui looked at Naruto, his dark brows furrowing in confusion, but obviously offended at the woman's behavior on Naruto's behalf.

 _'Not yet it looks like.'_

He didn't see it yet. But he would. She would make sure of it.

Naruto stepped in front of someone else when she sensed that same horrible emotion oozing out of him.

"Sup." Naruto waved.

"Move freak." He snarled, shoving past her and continuing on his way.

Naruto let it roll off of her back, until she felt something that was familiar when someone recognized her, but not entirely common.

It stuttered over her skin, unwelcome, a hair raising sensation that made her aware of her own heartbeat. Fear. This person was afraid of her.

The blonde stepped into an older man's path, peering at him through her shaggy bangs, knowing her unblinking stare came off as entirely menacing.

"Yo." She greeted quietly.

The old man jolted, holding his suddenly quaking hands up in a disarming manner as he looked anywhere but into her eyes.

"L-look, I don't want any trouble, alright?" He stuttered.

"What's the matter?" She drawled. "Don't wanna stay for a chat?"

"P-please! I don't want any t-trouble!" He exclaimed, sweat lining his receding hairline.

When Naruto continued to stare, he simply flinched again and practically ran to get away from her. She didn't turn to see him flee.

Naruto continued to do this, stepping before people and greeting them kindly for several minutes until her behavior caught the attention of the people and vendors loitering about.

 _"What is that girl doing now?"_

 _"Hey, isn't she the…?"_

 _"Shh! We're not supposed to talk about it!"_

 _"That girl is bad news."_

 _"Bad luck."_

 _"You should stay away from her!"_

 _"You don't have to tell me twice…"_

Naruto closed herself off, shutting herself away from the truth in the hearts of the people around her, hiding behind her shaggy bangs and her shields as her lips pursed behind her mask.

When the blonde composed herself, she looked up, right into Shisui's eyes.

"You get it?" She asked quietly, but she knew he could hear her just fine.

She knew he noticed the way the people walking down the street parted around her like a river around a rock.

"If you won't listen to me not needing or wanting them, then maybe you'll listen to the word shouldn't." She said. "I should not have friends."

Shisui just stared, speechless, though his expression wasn't exaggerated in any way. It was just calm in a grim sort of manner, like he realized something was helpless and that reacting strongly would make no difference.

 _'Good.'_ The blonde thought. _'That's what I wanted. I wanted him to look at me like that. I wanted him to know.'_

Naruto gave a self depreciating grin. And though Shisui couldn't see it, she knew he noticed the way that her eyes crinkled at the corners, and the way her cheeks rose. She knew he would be aware of the fact that grinning at such a time could not mean anything good.

"After all," Naruto went on. "I'm bad luck."

With that, she turned around and went home.

* * *

It was Thursday, the very next day, and once again after school.

Naruto left the Academy once again with no detention, intent on making her way home to review some fūinjutsu notes she'd been studying after she realized she wasn't going to get to test out the chakra storage seal. She was curious about forming her own seal. The fifth journal encouraged her to brainstorm making her own seal that wasn't too over thought. Something simple that would help her personally and wasn't too complicated. This exercise would help her in the long run on forming more complicated theories of her own and creating her very own master seals.

She was so in her head about her new ideas that she didn't even notice when she strolled past her favorite swing and someone called her name.

"Hey anybody in there?"

Naruto gave a short, startled shriek at the voice right next to her ear, moving before she even knew what she intended to do. The blonde blinked and found her wrist caught in a firm hold. Once again her bokutō was held harmlessly between her own body and Shisui's.

He snorted, raising a brow slightly.

"Startled you huh?"

Naruto sputtered.

"N-no!"

"Uh huh, and you just attack people for no reason right?"

"S-shut up!" Naruto blushed. "I'll kick your a-"

"O _kay_ , good to see you too buddy!" Shisui chirped, interrupting her.

The blonde huffed and snatched her wrist from his grasp, flipping her sword around and sliding it into the back of her jacket. She hunched her shoulders slightly as she began walking again, as if trying to hide between them. But this didn't hide the flames caught on her ears.

Shisui laughed quietly at her, walking beside her calmly. The duo got a few paces down the street away from the Academy before Naruto realized what was happening.

 _'Wait. Wait a minute… What the!?'_

The blonde moved so that she got in front of Shisui, whirling around so that she could face him and force him to halt his stride.

" _You…!_ " She began, feeling so hopelessly frustrated and confused that her face went entirely red with the force of her emotions. "What are you doing here?"

"What? I can't walk around the village?" Shisui asked innocently. "I live here too you know."

"Don't give me that you, you weirdo!" Naruto spluttered, gesturing at him violently. "You know what I'm talking about so stop trying to be cute."

"I'm not." He said, suppressing a grin. "I really was just taking a walk and the next thing I know I'm here."

So that's how he wanted to play it? Fine, he could play by himself because Naruto wanted no part of it.

"Fine." Naruto deadpanned, managing to compose herself. "You're right. You live here too. You can walk around and go where you want. So I'm gonna do the same thing and go _away_ from _you._ "

She turned away and began her trek towards home.

"C'mon Naruto why do you have to be so mean?" Shisui complained, exasperated, as if _he_ was as fed up as she was.

The nerve. But at least she was finally getting him to react as anything other than patient and amused. Maybe if she got on his nerves enough he'd take a freaking hint, or a slap to the face. Anything that would work really.

"Because I'm mean!" Naruto spat, stopping again and facing him. "That's just how I am. So no matter how curious you are, how patient you are, or how _nice_ you are, I'm not going to be different. Don't you get it? I'm a mean, violent, and rude person! I like being alone. I want to be alone. It's better for me and for everybody if I just stay that way. So could you just knock it off and _let_ me?"

At some point, she'd begun shouting, but she hadn't been able to bring herself to look at him, so she had trained her eyes on his feet as her posture became more and more defensive, her hands curled into trembling fists at her sides. At some point she had squeezed her eyes shut, and her shoulders had hunched to protect her.

Naruto didn't care if she was causing a scene. She didn't care if some of her classmates looked back at her, or if some shook their head, witnessing her being hostile to yet another innocent person.

Naruto's eyes were still screwed shut, and her lips were pinched, trembling behind the cover of her mask. She heard Shisui shift, and she grimaced, as if she expected him to strike her, but she was surprised to feel a warm weight on top of her head.

Naruto's eyes flew open, and she looked up, as the Uchiha had a few inches over her, surprised to find him giving her a soft look as he slowly patted her head.

The only person who had ever patted her head the way Shisui was doing was her Jiji. And it had always comforted her, or made her feel warm when he told her 'good job'.

Shisui wasn't saying 'it's okay' or 'good job', but even still Naruto felt warm and comforted.

This stranger, looking at her in a way that she couldn't really understand, and patting her head so gently made her feel better than anyone had in a long time.

Naruto moved swiftly, as if she was going to punch him with all her might, but at the very last second, she stopped herself, so that her fist connected softly with the center of his chest. The whole time, he hadn't flinched, and his soft expression changed, one eyebrow raised as if daring her to hit him, but not threatening her in any way.

He'd known as soon as she'd moved that she wouldn't hit him. The prick.

 _'You just think you're so smart don't you?'_ Naruto thought, not truly miffed.

They both stood there for a moment, Shisui's hand on her head, and her fist pushed against his chest.

Naruto took a deep breath, tearing her gaze away from his to look down and blink away the humiliating stinging sensation in her eyes.

She pulled her fist away from him, gently knocking his hand off of her head, looking up and away from him as she crossed her arms.

"Don't touch me." She grumbled, most definitely not pouting. Seriously. She did not do that. It was gross.

Shisui smiled and pulled his hand back, shoving it and his other one into his pants pockets.

"Alright alright." He murmured. "You win Naruto."

"If I won you'd be in Kumo and would never come back." The blonde muttered, walking off.

"You know, that really hurts Naruto." Shisui said, his tone not at all wounded. "I'd think you didn't like me."

"I don't." She huffed, walking just a bit faster.

"Oh but I know better." The Uchiha chuckled, skipping a bit to catch up.

"You don't know anything." Naruto complained. "That's the problem. You're an idiot who doesn't know when to quit and you have zero common sense."

"Maaaaybe," Shisui sang, his tone telling of his amusement. "But you still like me don't you? You think I'm interesting."

"No, I don't." Naruto denied, feeling her ears heat. "I can't stand you. You're annoying."

"And interesting."

"No."

A huff.

"Yes."

A grin.

 _'This moron is really something else.'_

And so, "Shut up Shisui." was her response.

"Ah ha!" He exclaimed, alarming her so much that she looked at him and his wide grin as he pointed at her. "You said my name instead of calling me one. That's progress. You like me Naruto."

"No I don't!" She squeaked, picking up her pace. "Shut up and piss off would you?"

"No way." Shisui laughed, delighted. "You like me so I can't leave now."

"Kami, why do you torture me?" Naruto whispered, looking up as if directly addressing an entity hidden in the clouds.

Shisui just huffed in good humor, keeping pace with her as she made her way to the training grounds.

Naruto… she did not understand what was happening, and she didn't know if she wanted to stop it.

 _'Just this once.'_ She told herself. _'I'll let him stick around just this once.'_

Naruto wondered why that felt like a lie.

She also wondered why she didn't really mind the truth.


	5. Moving Further

**Heyo! I don't own Naruto~**

* * *

Naruto wasn't sure why she wasn't trying as hard to get Shisui to leave her alone.

He'd been visiting her after school on and off for three weeks. Sometimes they would go to the training grounds and he would practice his taijutsu and kenjutsu katas while Naruto looked over her teacher's notebooks, using a fresh new one to write down all of the ideas she got about creating her own seal. She had a few ideas, but they all didn't seem very plausible, and she knew she would need to have more skill at the art before she could begin creating such things. Seriously, a seal that teleported letters from place to place? She needed to get her head out of the clouds.

Sometimes the duo would just sit outside of the Academy and play the "Get Naruto Out of Her Shell Game". Which was just Shisui asking her questions about herself, telling her random things about himself, and cracking odd jokes that she admittedly had to try hard not to snort at. Once they'd even gone to Ichiraku's and ate ramen, all the while Teuchi and Ayame were snickering delightedly amongst themselves and shooting them both very obvious looks.

Naruto had never been so humiliated in her life, which was why that was the first and last time she'd allowed Shisui to follow her to the ramen stand.

It was currently a Saturday afternoon, the sun was out and bright, but not overwhelming. The birds were singing, hidden in the training ground trees, and the breeze was present and playful.

Naruto was lying on her stomach, the grass tickling her bare arms as she lied there in only a black t-shirt and her matching maxi skirt. Her hair was as tame as she could get it, pulled into a sloppy knot at the back of her head. Shisui was hidden in the trees somewhere off to her right, playing with his ninja wire and shuriken.

Naruto's notebook was opened to a sketch riddled page, and she was twirling her pencil between her fingers thoughtfully. Her orange backpack sat to her journal's left, holding her sealing gear.

The blonde had decided that she was going to create her own variant of the classic storage seal. She knew from her teacher's notes that many beginners took the storage seal and altered it to make it their own when they started creating seals. It wasn't the same as doing something from scratch, but it was a good start for getting ready to create original seals.

Naruto knew that most storage seals sealed objects, and a variant sealed liquids. If someone was skilled enough they could even seal large bodies of water or entire buildings. But Naruto wasn't looking for something like that. It also already existed, which would defeat the purpose of the exercise.

She wanted to do something a little subtle. A storage seal that didn't need a chakra pulse to activate it. She wanted it to activate when it was met with a specific substance, so that meant that the sealing array needed to already have chakra pumped into it in order for it to work. The blonde already added the option to the seal to release, so that she could unseal the thing that would be going in.

Naruto had the skeleton of her seal already written out, but it was missing a vital component. The trigger. She needed to add an element to it that would make it activate and seal whatever it touched. But that meant that it would need to be very specific, otherwise the seal would be dangerously unstable if empty. It meant she had to write in exactly what she wanted to seal, locking out all other things, and when that very thing touched the seal it would then be pulled inside. If she didn't do that, the seal would remain unstable and would pull in anything it touched. That was a disaster she did not want to think about.

"But what would I need?" Naruto wondered. "You can seal pretty much anything into normal storage scrolls. What hasn't been sealed into storage seals that already exist? Or what hasn't been sealed in storage seals because nobody ever thought to do it?"

If Naruto created this trigger seal, that only sealed away a specific thing that it touched, it meant there was no way for what was inside to be contaminated. It meant when she unsealed it again, it would be as it was when she sealed it away. Nothing else could get in or out, and she couldn't seal anything else into it but what it was made to seal.

"Hey Naruto, wanna go get something to eat?"

Naruto looked up, to her right, pulled from her thoughts. Blue eyes immediately zeroed in on Shisui's left hand, which he was wrapping in bandages that were quickly becoming soiled with red.

"What happened?" She asked.

Shisui clicked his tongue as he finished wrapping his hand up.

"I was practicing my shurikenjutsu and a squirrel came out of literally nowhere, so I cut my hand when I saved it from being impaled."

"Only you would hurt yourself saving a squirrel." Naruto deadpanned.

Shisui snorted a laugh.

"It means I'm a good person." He said.

"Would a good person call themselves a good person?" The blonde retorted.

The Uchiha just smirked, prompting her to roll her eyes.

"Hey, watcha drawing?" Shisui wondered, suddenly crouched in front of her, peering curiously down at her notebook.

Naruto eyed him for a moment, and then inwardly shrugged.

"Remember when I told you I like studying seals?" She asked, continuing when he nodded. "Well, I'm working on a project now that'll help me later make up my own master seals. It's an important first step to in combat sealing, and I want to make something that'll be useful and help me out. So, I'm trying to customize a special storage seal. The only thing I need to figure out is what I'd need to seal."

Shisui hummed, moving closer and plopping down beside her.

He tilted his head to the side, peering into her notebook.

"I've never payed much attention to fūinjutsu, and honestly this all looks pretty complicated, so I doubt I could be of much help," Shisui began. "But instead of thinking in terms of what you need, what do you want?"

Naruto's brows furrowed.

"Huh?"

"You're thinking like a shinobi." Shisui explained. "Think like a fūinjutsu student. Don't think "what do I need" think "what do I want", and when you know what you want, you'll think about what you can do. When you know what you can do, you'll create something you want that's within your means."

And here Naruto thought that she had been keeping it simple. She had been trying not to overthink things, because she was still a rookie and knew a lot of her ideas wouldn't be things she could actually make a reality, but here Shisui was, making it apparent that she was still being idealistic.

She was thinking about creating something that she would need further down the line, something that had to do with her trigger seal idea.

But if she paused, she wasn't a shinobi. She was an Academy student. An Academy student who studied fūinjutsu and was thinking too hard about a project that was meant to be a moderately simple exercise.

Her teacher had told her not to overthink it as well.

 _'Well…'_ Naruto thought. _'Okay. Then what do I want?'_

The blonde snorted.

"I want a lot of things Shisui. That's doesn't mean I'll be able to make seals based off of them."

"Start small." He offered, raising his brows.

Honestly, he could be such a smart a-

"Don't give me that look." He said, brows returning to their normal positioning.

"Then don't give me yours." She returned flatly.

"What are you talking about?" His head tilted slightly.

"I'm talking about your eyebrows. They say a lot even when your big mouth is miraculously closed." Naruto huffed.

Shisui rose a brow.

"My point exactly." She deadpanned.

He snickered, obviously having been baiting her, and knowing that she had allowed him to. It was weird, but not in a negative way. Just unexpected. Shisui was still the most smiley Uchiha she'd ever interacted with, but the blonde had found that he had this sort of dry humor to him. While he could be goofy, and cheeky most certainly, he also had this quiet sarcastic side that came into play at some of the most unexpected times. He was an interesting person so far, that was for sure. And if nothing else Naruto had never once been bored since they started doing whatever the heck this was.

"Okay, but seriously though Naruto." He sobered. "What do you want? Simple stuff. Stuff you think isn't relevant to sealing. A lot of great things are made from the simplest thoughts."

"Whatever you say, Lao Tzu." Naruto snorted.

Shisui just gave her a wry smile that she snorted quietly at.

After a moment, the blonde pushed herself onto her knees, and then folded her legs beneath her so that she was sitting beside the Uchiha.

Naruto tapped her chin in thought, blue eyes beginning to unfocus as she mused.

Like she'd said, she wanted a lot of things. She wanted a new pair of sandals, maybe a new set of ink brushes, to live comfortably without getting into fights every other day and bloodying her knuckles… well, since she had been hanging out with Shisui she hadn't been getting into fist fights, because all of her free time was spent with him or on sealing, but still.

She'd had to throw away a lot of reusable hand wrappings because of stubborn blood stains. And no matter what kind of front she put on, walking around covered in old bloodstains was just disgusting.

 _'I think I'm getting off topic.'_ She mused flatly.

No. Wait. Simple... Something simple. The fifth journal encouraged simplicity. As long as it worked, it could be counted as a success and could be built on for later use.

 _'Something that nobody really cared to seal before, something simple and will help me with something I want now.'_

Naruto blinked, eyes drawn once more to Shisui's bloodied, bandaged hand. He was using the kind that had to be thrown away after one use, so it didn't matter that they were soiled, but Naruto felt she was onto something. It was stupid, most definitely, and a little gross… but she was certain she'd be able to make something of it.

The blonde reached for her backpack, unzipping it quickly because she needed to flesh this out.

"Did you come up with something?" Shisui asked.

"Maybe." She muttered. "Give me a second."

"Alright." The Uchiha allowed, shuffling a little ways away to give her room to work.

Naruto pulled a round glass pot with a wooden cork from her bag. The inside was stained black because it was full of her fūinjutsu ink. Next was a dark gray cloth that she set in the grass and unrolled, revealing three ink brushes with varying thicknesses to their bristles. Next she pulled out a special square shaped pad of paper, flipping the cover page open to reveal seal parchment. She tore off a fresh piece of parchment, moving her notebook aside, and then placed down the paper, anchoring the top of it with her ink pot. The blonde then uncorked said pot, picking up one of her ink brushes, one with thick long bristles for flowing, easy strokes.

Naruto dipped her brush in her ink pot, moving to begin her first mark upon the parchment. Her arm moved fluidly, creating a large swirl in the center of the page. She then created four tick marks that branched out around the swirl, which were the prongs or borders of the seal, the swirl being the actual containing part. Naruto set her brush aside, picking up a new one made for smaller details. She dipped it into the ink and wrote the small symbol 人 at the very end of each of the four prongs. The spaces between the outreaching prongs were filled with the characters チャクラ four times, curved so that they flowed around the swirl they closely bordered.

 _'Now I've got the base, all I need to do is add the trigger and...'_

Naruto bit her lip, setting her small brush aside and picking up the previous one, She dipped it in the ink pot, and then drew 血 around the face of the swirl mark, so that it eclipsed the swirl and its cage like borders held the symbol within it. Across the bars of the new symbol she added the trigger component トリガー, so that the seal would only bring in the specific substance she had keyed in. That substance being the physical form of the word 血.

Naruto took a deep breath, setting her brush down and staring at the product of her work. It was certainly crude, but she was only nine. She could make it more sophisticated when she became more familiar with fūinjutsu. For now, all she really needed was for it to work.

So, the blonde placed her fingers at the edge of the seal parchment, and then she sent the smallest chakra pulse she could manage through the paper. It was still a little violent, as the paper shuddered from the effect, only held down by the ink pot, but it was all she could do. Naruto had learned from her Jiji that she had a lot of chakra, so she would have trouble with using her chakra for things like creating bunshin, as the jutsu required such a minimal amount that she just couldn't create them without overloading them.

"What was that?" Shisui finally spoke, eyeing the paper curiously.

"Just a chakra pulse." Naruto said.

"Seemed like a lot." He murmured. "You need that much for a practice seal?"

"Who's the fūinjutsu student here again?" Naruto grumbled, casting him the stink eye.

Shisui snorted and just shrugged. Naruto huffed and looked back at her seal.

"Hey," She called, looking at him again when he hummed slightly. "Is your hand still bleeding?"

The boy glanced at the soiled bandages on his hand.

"Yeah it is. I think it might need stitches to be honest." He said, cocking his head to the side. "Why do you ask?"

"Lemme see your hand for a second?" Naruto asked.

"Why? What is that seal even supposed to do?" Shisui asked, even as he shuffled closer and held out his wounded hand.

"Relax, it's just a storage seal." Naruto assured him, taking his wrist, moving her other hand to unwrap the bandages.

"And you need my blood because…?"

"Not specifically you or anything." Naruto admitted. "Just blood. The seal is supposed to seal any blood away that touches it. It'll be my very own branch of the storage seal."

She let his wrappings fall to the grass, deciding that she would just give him some of hers from her bag, as she always took some with her when she left her house.

 _'Ew.'_ Naruto thought when she saw what lied beneath the wrappings.

Just as Shisui said, his hand was still bleeding. There was a nasty cut from between his middle and index finger that stretched across his palm. Naruto winced at the sight, tearing her eyes away and guiding Shisui's hand to hover directly over the drying ink of her seal. The blonde never inflicted such wounds on people, mostly reaping bruises from her brawls and bloodied noses or split lips. She was understandably a little squeamish around such nasty sights.

"Yeah you're probably gonna need stitches for this." Naruto muttered, releasing his wrist so that he could hold his bloody hand over the seal parchment himself. "Getting something like that from saving a squirrel is amazing... in a sad way."

Shisui just smiled sheepishly, shaking his hand a bit to get his blood flowing a little faster.

It didn't take long before one, two, three crimson drops pitter pattered across the symbols on the parchment.

"Nothing's happening." Shisui said, turning to look at the blonde beside him.

Naruto's brows furrowed, watching as red trickled from the gash on the Uchiha's palm, splattering onto her seal. His hand was bleeding enough that it was starting to make her a little squeamish.

"Alright you can move your hand now." The blonde said. "Thanks I guess."

"No problem." He said.

"There's more bandages in my backpack." Naruto offered, not looking away from her failed seal.

Shisui took that as his cue, and moved to retrieve the bag, going through it with his good hand and pulling out a roll of fresh bandages.

"Thank you."

Naruto didn't answer.

She was staring at the parchment in front of her.

 _'Why?'_ She thought.

Why wasn't it working? She had done everything right. She knew it wasn't on master level and a real master could write the seal out in a much more elegant and efficient way but theoretically her seal should work. It was relatively simple. A storage seal with a trigger. The trigger was the blood, and that was that. Blood touches seal, blood goes poof.

 _'So why?'_

Naruto huffed and crossed her arms, biting her lip beneath her surgeon's mask.

 _'What's wrong with this thing?'_

Just as she was about to throw in the towel and go back to the drawing board, she noticed the small pool of Shisui's blood begin to bead together, dragging across the symbols.

Naruto blinked rapidly.

 _'What the…'_

They droplets merged, clumping together in a dome like shape.

Naruto's jaw dropped when the blood disappeared in a poof of smoke. Shisui's attention snapped to the seal at the tell tale sound of chakra usage in the shinobi world. It was a sound that often accompanied summoning something, using the basic form of shunshin, using a kage bunshin, and many many other things. And sure enough, when Shisui looked away from tying off his fresh bandages, his blood was gone, and the seal had turned red.

He looked at Naruto, midnight eyes just as wide as her own.

"It… it worked." She breathed. "I… I mean it was super slow, so I obviously gotta work out some bugs but it actually worked."

"Naruto…" Shisui began, turning fully on his knees to face her. "Did you really just create your own form of the storage seal?"

"I… I dunno." She breathed. "I still have to test it to see if it rejects other things. But… but I think I at least have a really good prototype for my own form of the storage seal."

"Naruto that's great!" Shisui grinned.

Naruto couldn't help the pride that swelled in her chest. She was grinning too. And even though she was wearing her mask she knew Shisui could tell.

* * *

After Naruto had carefully preserved her seal, she walked with Shisui to the hospital because the dork was still bleeding.

He'd needed fourteen stitches. Nine on the inside because it was deep, and five on the outside holding his palm together. He'd only keep them in until his body started healing it on its own, which would be about four days, and then he would return to the hospital so a doctor could use the mystical palm to heal it completely closed.

The village hospital tried to refrain from using the mystical palm on things considered minor injuries because it conditioned a shinobi's healing process to become irregular and lazy, their bodies assuming they would always be stitched back together when rended. Giving normal treatment actually kept shinobi healthier in the long run.

It was all rather interesting to Naruto to be honest, but she really did prefer fūinjutsu. Though, it wouldn't hurt for her to pick up a little more reading material here and there. If Shisui was going to be the kind of idiot that cut himself up during training she should probably know first aid.

 _'Wait…'_ Naruto paused, catching Shisui's curiosity as they left the hospital. _'Did I just think about learning first aid so that I could help the moron?'_

Naruto blinked.

 _'What the…'_

"Hey Naruto are you okay?" Shisui asked, turning back to her. "What's up?"

 _'Whatever, I'm sure it's nothing.'_ She assured herself, shaking her head.

"Nah, nothing." She waved him off, moving to catch up. "So… food?"

Shisui snorted.

"I spent all of the money I had on my stitches. I'm broke." The Uchiha said.

Naruto rolled her eyes.

"So I guess that means I'm paying?"

Wow what was with her today? She was being awfully courteous.

 _'Well, he did help me with my seal…'_ She reasoned. That had to be why she was being so… ugh, nice. _'Or is it just normal?'_

Who knew.

"You don't have to pay." Shisui assured her, catching her attention again. "We could eat at home." He offered with a shrug.

Naruto bristled.

"Who's house are you talking about?"

He smiled.

"Relax I'm not trying to get you to come to the compound." He placated. "That's a subject for another day. Can I come to your house?"

For another day huh? How about never. Shisui had offered to let her come to his house before, and Naruto had vehemently refused. It was too many people in one place, plus, she'd have to meet his parents, and that was a wreck she wanted to stay far far away from. He strangely never talked about his parents or what he did at home, but Naruto still did not want to step foot in the Uchiha district and nothing short of her Jiji ordering her to would make her.

But this was different. Shisui was asking to go to her house. They didn't even know each other for that long and already he wanted to… but what was the harm right? She had food at home. Easy stuff to make because she couldn't cook worth a da-

"Naruto?"

"Hm?" She hummed, pulled from her thoughts.

"You don't have to let me come over you know?" Shisui said, and then he huffed, amused. "Though I'm sure you're never going to do anything you really don't want to. I can just eat at my house and you can go home and we can hang out tomorrow after my ninja duties."

Naruto wondered why that idea displeased her. Maybe they hadn't known each other for ages but it'd been three weeks. Another week and it would be a month. She knew him well enough to know that he wasn't some plotting scumbag so there really wouldn't be any harm done. It was just…

The only person that had visited Naruto's house was the Hokage. Iruka-sensei had showed up at her door to bang on it and yell at her when she used to skip class, but he hadn't done that in a while because she hadn't skipped in a while. Plus he had never actually been inside. Naruto had always gone to the door to him.

The blonde had never had a real guest at her house. And here Shisui was, casually asking to come over. If she was honest… it's not really that she didn't want him there it was just…

Her ears burned.

 _'Am I nervous?'_ She wondered, miffed. _'For what?'_

"Ugh, no." She grumbled, turning away from his imploring gaze, continuing down the sunlit road. "It's fine, c'mon. I have some onigiri in the fridge. I guess you can have some, moron."

"What?" Shisui blinked. "Really?"

"Would I joke about something like that?" Naruto shot back.

"Would you joke about anything?" He snorted.

Naruto resisted the urge to roll her eyes (because she was doing that alot), and didn't say anything else as he started following her.

She was nervous about having someone come over, and she didn't want to think about why, so she figured if she just got it out of the way it would be fine, because having her ears flaming the way they were was seriously annoying.

If Shisui had a problem with the way she kept house she would not so kindly show him the opposite side of her door and assure him that he did not ever have to come back.

* * *

Naruto unlocked her door with her key, gesturing flatly for Shisui to go in first.

He did so, subtly looking around.

"Please excuse the intrusion." He mumbled.

Naruto knew what he saw.

A modest apartment with buttercream walls, which led to a hallway that had two white doors on each side of it. There was a dark wood kitchenette to the left of the apartment with stainless steel kitchen appliances, and polished wood flooring. There was also a round table setup with two orange wing chairs on either side of it.

The chairs seriously did not go with the rounded dark wood table but they were cheap. Meaning free because Naruto had found them put outside of an apartment building down the road. Someone had been moving and they didn't want the chairs anymore. Naruto had shrugged and gotten them home with the help of some bored passing ninja that obviously didn't care who she was.

To the right of her home were two windows and ceils that held well cared for house plants, a dark bookshelf filled to the brim with Academy textbooks, and how to books on various things. Most of the how to books were gifts from Hokage-jiji. He was such a mother hen. There was also a wooden desk against the wall with a stool in front of it. The wall before the desk had all kinds of fūinjutsu notes tacked against it and the desk itself was covered in clutter. Ink brushes, paper, journals, and unopened ink pots.

Naruto's tan carpeted home also had a chocolate colored couch with all kinds of different colored patches on it from where she'd doctored it up when there was a tear. There was a coffee table before the couch for whatever reason and across from that a tv stand with said mostly unused tv sitting on top of it.

The place wasn't very messy, but oh my could it be. Luckily Naruto had been in one of her cleaning moods a day before otherwise Shisui would've probably run for the hills. Then again, Naruto would never let him step foot in her house if she knew it wasn't presentable. She may be a jerk, but she had pride.

"It's a nice place." The Uchiha said.

"Thanks." Naruto returned.

Why had she been nervous again? This seemed fine...

"So, you live alone?" Shisui asked after a pause, squatting down to follow Naruto's lead and take off his sandals.

"Yup just me." Naruto returned, leaving her bag and shoes at the door as she made her way to the kitchenette.

Naruto started washing her hands as Shisui finally responded.

"Me too."

The blonde froze, pulling her hands from the warm water.

"Can I?" Shisui asked, suddenly at her side in front of the sink.

Naruto nodded, moving to dry her hands on the fluffy orange dish towel hanging on her dish rack. Shisui took her place before the sink, soaping up his hands and putting them under the tap that Naruto hadn't turned off. He didn't look at her as he washed his hands, and she didn't look at him.

But… Did…?

Did Shisui just admit to not having any parents? Naruto distracted herself by moving away from him and pulling open her fridge. It wasn't very full, but there was some wrapped up onigiri in there from yesterday that she'd made after school. It wasn't anything fancy, just the plain kind.

Naruto pulled out the small tray they were on, setting it on the table.

"Can I sit?" Shisui asked.

"U-uh yeah." Naruto stuttered, moving around him to dig out her kettle and start some water for tea. She always kept tea around because her Jiji liked it and sometimes he would sit at her table for hours and sip tea, asking her about her studies and how she was doing and such.

Shisui quietly took the orange chair that faced the inside of the apartment.

Naruto found it odd to see someone other than the Hokage sitting in that chair. But she couldn't remember why she had been nervous about having someone over in the first place. Yes, she was a little shaken because Shisui had just possibly revealed something _really_ personal... but having him there… it was surprisingly okay with her. He didn't think her place was gross, that she was super poor, and he wasn't uncomfortable being there. So… Naruto felt strangely relieved knowing those things.

"Do you want me to warm up the onigiri?" Naruto muttered, turning on the stove and setting her kettle on the eye after filling it with water.

"No it's okay." Shisui said, alarmingly subdued. "I like them cold."

"Okay," Naruto returned, staring at her silver kettle. "I'm making tea. Grey or Green?"

"Green." He murmured.

Naruto sighed, she didn't understand this. What was happening? Why had she allowed him into her apartment? Why didn't she mind him being there? Why _did_ she mind that there was no conversation going on?

The blonde blew a tuft of hair from her eyes. She turned around.

"Stop." Naruto huffed, storming over and snatching off the plastic wrap around the rice balls.

Shisui looked up from his lap.

"What?" He asked, eyebrows raising up.

"Ugh." Naruto groaned, picking up one of the six onigiri sitting on the small serving tray. "Stop being all meh. I live alone, you live alone. Okay. Alright. We live alone. That's just… it's just the way…"

The blonde frowned and shrugged. She wasn't good at this.

She didn't know how to be good at it or if she even wanted to because she'd already been there, being nice and sweet and concerned for others and the world shitted on her.

Naruto didn't know if she could go back to that "good", "nice" person. She didn't know if she could be like Shisui and pat him on the head the way he had patted her's on a day that had seemed so long ago.

So, being gruff, mean, and awkward Naruto she shoved the rice ball she was holding into Shisui's mouth.

"Eat that." Naruto demanded, ignoring his choked cry. "Stop being meh or I'll kick you out."

Shisui stared up at her with wide obsidian eyes, looking quite the picture with food shoved halfway into his mouth. But, Naruto would let the stupidity slide because he was obviously surprised. Honestly Naruto was too. She didn't know how to comfort someone, and she gave up before she really even let herself try but Shisui could see her intent. She knew he could.

Naruto didn't understand this. She wasn't sure she really wanted to but for now she guessed it was just how things were.

He reached up, pulling the onigiri from his mouth after biting off a piece. He chewed it, still staring at Naruto, his widened eyes softening and tilting with a smile.

"You're really bad at this Naruto." He chuckled, not elaborating, because they both knew what he was referring to.

The blonde bristled.

"You don't like it you can leave."

"Hm." Shisui hummed, taking another bite of his food. "No, that's okay. Thanks Naruto."

"Whatever." Naruto grunted. "Even though I hate to say it you did help me with my seal and stuff. So I guess I don't mind sharing some food with you."

"Hm?" Shisui hummed again, smiling truly now. "Oh yeah, thanks for the food too."

Naruto's masked face went up in flames. But she was saved by the sudden screaming of her kettle on the stove, moving a little too quickly to tend to it if Shisui's laugh was any indication.

Ugh he was so annoying, always throwing her off guard and making her feel all stupid. She didn't even know why she let him get under her skin so thoroughly at this point.

 _'I am so hopeless.'_ She inwardly grumbled, taking the two white steaming mugs to the table and setting one down in front of the Uchiha, and another in front of her seat.

"You want sugar and milk?" She asked, already moving away, pulling the step stool out that she kept in the little space between her refrigerator and her dishwasher.

"Two sugars, no milk please." Shisui replied pleasantly.

Naruto stepped onto her step stool, opening one of her cabinets and pulling down a small, orange, ceramic pot. She set it onto the counter and pulled off the lid, revealing the sugar cubes inside. She just brought the whole thing over and set it on the table, gesturing for Shisui to help himself. She also handed him a spoon to stir his sugar into his tea.

"Thank you."

Naruto shrugged, taking two sugars herself and plopping them into her cup. She didn't use a spoon and instead would just let the sugar do its thing.

The blonde finally took her seat across from Shisui and helped herself to one of the onigiri between them. She pulled her mask down around her chin and started eating.

"So what are you gonna do now that you have your seal?" The Uchiha asked, lifting his tea filled spoon to his lips and blowing at it.

He wasn't surprised by her whiskered face. He'd seen it a handful of times and honestly Naruto only wore her mask as much as she did out of habit.

"I told you I have to test if it rejects sealing other things." Naruto said. "That can take until tomorrow or even until next month. Who knows. I'm still gonna do it 'cause I wanna move forward with fūinjutsu."

"Fūinjutsu huh." Shisui mused, helping himself to another rice ball. "Hey Naruto?"

"Hm?" She hummed around her food.

"Can you teach me fūinjutsu?"

Naruto choked on said food before she managed to force it down.

"W-what?" She sputtered, blinking rapidly.

"Well, y'know… I'm curious about it now and stuff." He explained, shrugging. "You seem really into it and I just want to know more about it now."

Naruto could not believe what she was hearing. Someone was actually asking her to teach them something? Yeah it was Shisui, the most surprising person she had ever met, but _still._ Most people her age and around her age assumed she was a delinquent idiot who couldn't tell an eraser from a kunai so… she was honestly shocked.

Almost speechless actually. And to top that off, Shisui wanted to learn because it was something that she liked, he wanted to know more about it because it was something that was important to her. This much she could gather, she could see it in those curious dark eyes of his.

Huh. Wow.

Naruto did not understand this. She didn't understand _him._ But it seemed like there was a lot of things lately that she didn't understand and may never understand.

Even still… the idea of sharing fūinjutsu with someone else… the idea of being able to bounce theories back and forth and help each other with tasks that would mature their fūinjutsu… it was surprisingly tempting. The idea actually pleased her.

Naruto pulled herself away from her thoughts, lips pursing.

"Ah, I dunno man." She finally muttered. "I'm no expert, and I only know what I know because I have a sort of teacher that gives me his notes on fūinjutsu."

"Sort of teacher?" Shisui tilted his head to the side.

"Well, I don't know the guy. Never met him. He just puts journals on his fūinjutsu studies in my mailbox every few months and I'm not supposed to read them until I finish the one before it."

"Huh," Shisui said. "That's kind of weird, but cool. But Naruto, if this person is still giving you journals wouldn't that mean that you're actually good at fūinjutsu?"

"I'm not saying I'm not good at it." She huffed.

It was one of the only things she could say for certain that she actually had a talent for. Hokage-jiji had told her so. And he had definitely not been lying when he told her that.

"I'm just saying I don't know if I'd be any good at teaching." Naruto went on, frowning. "And I don't really think I would want to lend you any of the notes he gave me to study them yourself."

She knew it was pretty selfish of her because Shisui was honestly asking to learn, but it just didn't sit right with her to let him borrow her notes. They were hers. They were given to _her._ She just… she didn't want to sound girly but her teacher's journals were honestly important to her. Her very own treasures.

For whatever reason Shisui picked up on that and shrugged slightly, his expression knowing and good natured.

"Okay how about this," He offered. "What if I come here to learn fūinjutsu, and you let me study the journals. I don't have to take them out of here, and you can make sure I take care of them. Also I can ask you questions if I get confused about something and you can help me with exercises and stuff."

It was a nice compromise. It was well thought out and considerate of him.

 _'He really wants to learn huh?'_

Jiji had said that not many people were interested in fūinjutsu these days, and it was considered an almost lost art. Who was Naruto to deny someone of learning it? And honestly, she did like the idea of not being the only person seriously learning how to use the art.

"And hey, I'm not just asking you to teach me just because." Shisui said, surprising her as he sipped his tea. "I'd teach you stuff too. I've got a friend that I trade jutsu with all the time, and he says I'm very good at teaching. I could help you sharpen your shinobi skills."

Naruto tore her eyes away from his, busying herself with tracing the rim of her cup with her finger.

That sounded awesome. Shisui was already a Chūnin, so she knew he was a good ninja and was leagues ahead of her in the art of the shinobi. She really hadn't thought of teaching him and receiving lessons in return, but it was a nice idea. She knew she left much to be desired as a shinobi in training, and a little extra help never hurt anybody.

"What would you even teach me?" She finally asked, looking up again.

"What would you want to learn?"

Naruto shrugged.

The only thing she ever truly wanted to learn and master was fūinjutsu, (and recently first aid but she would never say that out loud).

Shisui seemed to mull over something before he perked up.

"Oh, I know!" He chirped, leaning across the table with sparkling eyes. "What about kenjutsu?"

Naruto's mouth fell open.

"I noticed you carry around a bokken. I also noticed that you don't have a sword style." Shisui explained, smoothly glossing over the fact that she had absolutely no skill with a blade. "I could teach you kenjutsu. It's one of my specialties."

"Wait, doesn't your clan have a special sword style or something?" Naruto questioned, suspicious.

"Yeah, I learned our clan's main style first. But I know two more. Not as proficiently, but still pretty well to use in combat."

"Are they styles your family made up?" Naruto asked.

Shisui smiled innocently.

"Dude, I'm obviously no expert on this stuff but isn't that against clan rules or something?" Naruto asked, giving him a flat look.

"What they don't know won't hurt them." He sang.

Naruto shook her head, looking away in an attempt to hide the uplifting corners of her mouth.

"You're seriously the worst, you know that?" She muttered.

Shisui laughed quietly, shrugging in a 'what can ya do' sort of way. Naruto rolled her eyes, turning back towards him again.

"Okay, I'm in." She said. "But don't think I'm gonna go easy on you. Fūinjutsu is a serious art and I'm not gonna let you slack off, got it?"

"I wouldn't want you to." Shisui smiled. "Thanks Naruto. I'm happy."

The blonde bristled, moving swiftly so that she didn't have to confront how warm those words made her chest feel. Shisui blinked when Naruto lunged forward, picking up another rice ball and shoving it into his smiling mouth.

"S-shut up." Naruto stuttered, leaning back and collapsing against her chair. "Don't be happy. I'm not. I have to teach a weirdo like you. You're gonna be coming here and that means I gotta look at your stupid face in the only place I'm supposed to be free of it."

Shisui pulled the onigiri out of his mouth and calmly chewed on the bite he'd taken out of it.

"You're mean Naruto." The Uchiha snickered.

"S-so?" Naruto snarled, picking up her mug and hiding behind a sip of tea.

"Well, I guess if you're not gonna go easy on me in fūinjutsu training, I won't go easy on you during kenjutsu training."

"Good." The blonde answered, setting her cup down to give him the stink eye. "Because if you did I'd knock your teeth out."

Shisui choked on the bite of food he'd taken in, spitting a little as he sputtered with laughter. Naruto watched him shakily compose himself.

"You're so violent." He chuckled, eyeing her humorously.

"Hmph." Naruto crossed her arms. "Anyways, when do you want to do this stuff? You said you were a Chūnin, so when do you have time?"

"Well, I'm free today, so if you don't mind can I learn fūinjutsu on Saturdays? And I guess I can do self study and stuff when I'm not with you. And I'm usually free after your Academy hours as you know, so I can teach you kenjutsu and stuff after your classes."

Naruto nodded thoughtfully.

"Yeah that's good." She agreed. "But we can take turns after my school day is over with teaching each other. So every other day you can teach me kenjutsu and the days you aren't teaching I'll teach unless you have missions or something. Just try and tell me if you can't make it or somethin'. On Saturdays we can spend the whole day on fūinjutsu. Since I'm still learning it'll be good for me to keep studying myself."

Shisui grinned.

"Naruto my friend, I think we've just come to an agreement."

The blonde rolled her eyes.

"Whatever you dork."

"Aw, don't be like that Naruto." He cooed. "You're happy too aren't you?"

The blonde's hackles rose, likened to an offended kitten.

"G-get out of my house!" She blushed.

Shisui threw his head back and cackled.

It was at that moment Naruto knew that she would definitely have her work cut out for her.

Who knew though, maybe it would be fun. Not that she would _ever_ say that.

Still, even if she wasn't ready to say so out loud, she knew she was moving further as a person. Maybe she didn't know how to comfort others, or express her feelings well, but inside there was definitely a change to her. And young she may be, she wasn't so naïve not to know who was responsible for such a change.

 _'This moron makes no sense.'_

She didn't get him. His ways were beyond her, and she just didn't know how to take it. But she didn't really mind. Actually, Naruto found that a lot of things about him didn't really irk her like they might if done by someone else. This was also another thing on the growing list of things that she did not understand. But...

Shisui was Shisui, and she at least could understand that.

* * *

 **Laozi, also Lao-Tzu was an ancient Chinese philosopher and writer. Lol, I don't know of any Japanese philosophers right off the top of my head. So… yeah.**


	6. Training and Maiming

**Warning: Some foul language and violence in this chapter. I doubt you'll get squeamish though, I tried to keep the descriptions to a minimum.**

 **I don't own Naruto or the cover image.**

* * *

Naruto gasped as a sandal clad foot slammed into her chest, sending her back several feet. She collapsed with the breath knocked out of her on her back, staring up into the afternoon sky above training ground three's clearing.

Her bokken lied somewhere out of her line of sight, as it had been slapped out of her hand before she received a quite brutal kick to the abdomen.

"Forget this!" Naruto spat, slamming her fist into the grass in frustration before sitting up and glaring at the raven haired boy making his way over to her.

Blue eyes narrowed.

"Wipe that smirk off of your face Uchiha." The blonde warned.

Shisui cocked his head to the side innocently, dropping into a squat before her sitting form.

"I wasn't smirking." He said.

Naruto turned her nose up.

"You were too!" She argued. "You're enjoying this. You like kicking my butt."

Shisui's lips twitched slightly, but he managed to smear the forming grin away.

"I'm not kicking your butt Naruto, I'm training you."

"It's the same thing!" The blonde huffed, crossing her arms.

"It's not." Shisui answered patiently, this time offering her a small smile. "Training you learn, getting your butt kicked… well you can learn from that too, but I'm pretty sure it's more painful and doesn't stop when you hit the ground."

Naruto's bottom lip jutted out beneath her surgeon's mask. She studied the raven long and hard before she sniffed imperiously and looked away.

"Wanna call it a day?" Shisui offered.

She kinda did, but Naruto hated giving up. Not to mention, Shisui's own training was going a lot smoother than her own. Imagine her surprise when the stupid Uchiha's eyes changed colors that fateful time two weeks prior, (when they began his fūinjutsu training) and he memorized the first journal from Naruto's teacher in a day.

Shisui had explained the abilities of his sharingan, and Naruto would frankly say she hated his stupid cheating copy wheel eye because seriously? That was just not fair. Though Shisui had agreed to honestly take his time to understand everything and not just copy it. He also promised to not use his sharingan for the rest of the fūinjutsu journals, swearing on his "shinobi honor" that he would work just as hard as Naruto did to become just as skilled as she was.

Despite not initially wanting to allow Shisui to borrow her teacher's journals because they were her own personal treasures, she allowed him to take home the first edition (despite the fact that he had recorded it with his cheating eye), making him swear that he would bring it back as good as new when he was done. For the most part he had been doing self study with the first book and when they met up Naruto would quiz him on theory and certain characters.

The blonde had found that just because he could record something, it didn't necessarily mean that he could comprehend it. So she made sure that he actually understood what he copied.

But for the most part they had been focusing on her training with kenjutsu throughout the two weeks.

Needless to say, she needed all the help she could get.

On top of that, she also hadn't figured out how to make her blood seal any faster in the process of sealing blood away. The response after triggering it was annoyingly delayed and it was driving Naruto absolutely nuts. Meaning, not only was she getting her butt kicked almost daily by some bed headed prick, she was also getting owned by a piece of paper with some squiggly lines on it.

"Nah, I'm not giving up." Naruto said, eyes bright and jaw set. "We're gonna get lunch, and then we're coming right back here and I swear you are not going to kick my butt again!"

Shisui grinned, eyes twinkling.

"That's the spirit!"

Naruto rolled her eyes, but there was a twitching at her hidden lips.

"Oh shut up."

* * *

Unfortunately, Shisui had indeed kicked her butt again after lunch, but hey, by the end of the day she had managed to hold onto her sword without dropping it no matter how far the Uchiha punted her.

That had been the ultimate goal of that lesson. "Do not release your blade."

Now that Naruto had down the intro to kenjutsu, she had been working on katas. It was only a week later, meaning the process was still slow. But the first two weeks of the blonde's training hadn't only taught her to hold her blade correctly or how to alter her grip so that she never dropped it (without having her hands cut off).

Shisui was doing more than kicking her butt around the training ground while trying to disarm her. He was also teaching her how to maneuver around, safely block, or negate attacks while teaching her to not release her blade. So by the end of Naruto's first two weeks as a kenjutsu student, she could confidently say she had improved her maneuverability, blocking skills, and learned to redirect attacks.

She was by no means an expert and had a ways to go before she could be considered skilled, but she was on her way.

More presently Naruto sat at the counter of Ichiraku's ramen stand, enjoying her second bowl of miso ramen. She'd spent her Saturday training with the first four katas of the Uchiha's Halo Dance sword style, Shisui's favorite. She had alternated slowly between them, as well as transitioned between certain holds of her bokken's hilt.

Shisui was off on a mission, having had enough time to show Naruto the katas before he had to leave. He'd been gone for almost a week and Naruto wasn't sure when he was due to return, and she hated to admit it but she'd been a little… lonely without him.

 _'What's wrong with me?'_ She wondered, shaking her head. She couldn't believe she had actually gotten attached to that moron.

With one last content slurp, Naruto polished off her meal and stood up, reaching into her orange track jacket and pulling out her coin pouch, Gama-chan.

Naruto pulled out a few bills and tossed them onto the counter next to her three empty stacked bowls.

"Thanks for the grub old man Teuchi!" She called. "I'm heading out!"

The ramen chef poked his head out over the counter (because he'd been cleaning back there and it was almost closing time). He smiled kindly.

"Alright Naruto." Teuchi said. "Thanks for stopping by and don't play around in the streets. Go straight home young lady."

"Yeah yeah," The blonde grumbled, waving him off as she made her way out of the comfy establishment, despite the warmth spreading through her chest. "Later old man, I'll be here tomorrow after school."

"Alrighty, it's a promise then. I'll see you then!" He chirped, immune to her gruff attitude.

Naruto stuffed her hands into her pockets, stepping out into the road and snuggling into the high collar of her track jacket. She wasn't wearing a mask because she hadn't done any sealing, so she didn't need it to stave off the thick scent of ink.

She strolled through the moonlit darkness with a lazy ease, her mind wandering again back to Shisui, and when he would return. It would probably be very soon, because he didn't usually take really long missions due to being so young, despite his admirable rank of Chūnin.

She was so caught up in her thoughts as she made her way through the familiar back alleys she always ventured through to get home, she didn't notice anything was amiss until it was too late to turn back.

Naruto stopped, a scowl setting firmly between her fair brows.

"Whaddyou want?" She asked gruffly, peering into the darkness before her. The alley was squashed between two red brick buildings, trash strewn about its uneven pavement and battered wooden crates hiding things in shadows were stacked up high on either side.

"It's just like they say," A young male voice said, resonating forebodingly from within the darkness. "You've got senses like a dog. No one can sneak up on you, Senketsu-ojou."

Naruto's azure eyes narrowed as someone stepped out of the shadows created by a stack of crates to her right, the dim, flickering street light mounted to the side of the right brick building helping to illuminate the stranger's form.

He was definitely older than Naruto, probably around eleven or twelve, with dark hair wrestled into a spiky ponytail and dark eyes. He wore drab colored clothes, and there was really nothing very distinctive about him. He was also someone that Naruto wasn't acquainted with.

But that wasn't anything new.

Before Naruto had been hanging with Shisui, which resulted in her usually getting home before sundown, her nights had been walking the streets of Konoha's back alleys. Those past nights started with a stranger, and ended with her knuckles stained with blood.

Many youths had challenged her. All kinds of riff raff, orphans, aspiring thugs, thieves, and overall scumbags. She was renown in the red light district as a near unstoppable force. People confronted her when they had something to prove. They wanted to beat her, because if you could beat her, the vicious Senketsu no Naruto… you were one to be respected and feared.

So far she had not been defeated.

And she was not planning to anytime soon.

"I don't like repeating myself." She drawled, stretching her extra sense for emotions, because she knew a lot of thugs ran in numbers.

"What do you want." Naruto deadpanned, just as something alerted her senses.

 _'I knew it.'_ She thought. _'Rats really do run in packs.'_

There were six more people hiding around the alley. And one neutral presence, probably a resident homeless person. Their emotions told the blonde that they were asleep. But the ones there specifically for her…

She could feel their lust for violence, their desire to harm her, to smear her name into the mud after beating her into the ground. She also felt their envy of her, and it slid over her like a viscous slime, nearly making her shiver. The blonde quickly reeled in her emotional shields to block out the unsettling emotions coming from the dirtbags waiting to jump her.

"You know what I want." The boy said, giving her a wide and sinister smirk. "I want to fight you, Senketsu-ojou. I wanna see why some of the toughest guys out here start to sweat when they hear your name. I wanna see if you're really as scary as you make people believe you are."

"Don't you people ever get tired of bothering me?" She asked dryly. "No one's beat me before and they're not gonna now. So why don't you do us both a favor and get lost?"

"No can do." The preteen said, shrugging carelessly. "I like getting what I want. I _always_ get what I want. And I want to fight you."

"Then you want to get your face beat in." Naruto retorted. "But fine. I won't waste my breath. Come at me yourself, or try and jump me with those six little ass kissers you brought with you. It won't work."

The blonde watched the older boy's face contort hideously with temper, lip lifting in a snarl as he barked out two simple words.

"Get her."

 _'Man, he sure changed his tune after I ruffled his feathers a bit.'_

The six other hidden assailants leapt out of the shadows, one behind her, two on her right, and three on her left.

As usual, tucked into the back of her jacket was her katana length rosewood bokutō. Its perfectly polished black chakra metal edge twinkled in the moonlight as she drew it from its hidden sheath. It was sharp enough to cut like a true katana, but she never drew blood with anything other than the might of her fists. So she flipped the blade around, ensuring she would rend no flesh and only dish out wicked bruising.

The first nondescript and scruffy boy had a shaved head and charged at her with a battle cry, fists brandished. Naruto swung her blade swiftly, smashing it mercilessly across his throat, he choked, spit flying from his mouth as he flew back clutching his rapidly purpling neck.

Though he was already forgotten when Naruto pivoted on her left foot, right leg swinging up, her sandal smashing into the temple of a light haired boy with dark skin. He staggered, and dropped like a ton of bricks, unconscious.

"You bitch!" The enraged cry alerted her of another boy closing in from behind, brandishing a rusty pipe of all things.

Naruto whirled around, taking a two handed hold on her wooden blade, holding it up so that the tip pointed to her right, the blunt edge taking the brunt of the boy's overhead pipe strike. The little blonde buckled a little under the older boy's strength, but she pushed forward, forcing him to stumble back so she could ram her knee into his gut. He coughed, and before he could regain his bearings she elbowed him in the face, wincing slightly as he howled, nose crunching and crimson immediately spewing from the broken appendage.

The blonde dived to the left with a neat roll, narrowly avoiding a kick in her side by a new assailant. She landed in a crouch, facing the three remaining boys while the seventh, their leader with the spiky ponytail, grinded his teeth on the sidelines.

The boy's watched her as she watched them.

"What are you doing?" The leader snarled. "I told you to get her!"

Naruto's breath was slightly labored, but she was by no means worn out. She could go on a ways before her engines died.

"But boss, she's too quick." Wheezed the boy with the shaved head, the one she had nailed in the throat.

"Don't be stupid." The "boss" huffed. "If you all went at her at once instead of taking turns so she can pick you off, then we wouldn't even still be here."

"B-but…"

"Shut up." The "boss" snapped, furiously eyeing the boy's who's nose had been broken. "You're all acting like a bunch of stupid fucks. Gang up on her and she won't be able to hurt you like she has been."

 _'He's smart.'_ Naruto thought darkly. _'Even I know I can't take on six people at once if they're working together. Better take that as my cue.'_

"This is boring." Naruto declared flatly, standing up, rolling her shoulders back confidently. "Why don't you just fight me yourself big boss man? Instead of sending your buddies over there to do it for you? I don't see how that would prove you're better than me. Actually, it'll just tell anybody who matters that you're a bunch of chumps that could only beat one little girl by jumping her."

The leader of the little gang's face contorted once again, filling with pure anger and the desire to cause harm. Naruto felt his spiteful intent brush across her shields, and she shivered slightly, tightening her mental fortitude as a result.

 _'That's passed my cue. He's way too serious about hurting me.'_

"Chill out, it's not that serious." Naruto drawled, showing nothing of her inner thoughts. "To prove it, I'll leave before you guys embarrass yourself anymore. Maybe when you lot grow a pair you can try again someday."

"Who the hell do you think you ar-"

Before the random offended dude could finish his cursing, the boy she had knocked out with one blow suddenly groaned, shifting on the dirty ground. While their attention went to him, Naruto wasted no more time bolting back the way she'd entered.

She was no coward, but she knew how to choose her battles. And she knew that after a day of rigorous training she wasn't up for a six, (maybe seven now that the "boss" was all riled up) man assault.

A blur zipped passed her unexpectedly, and she skidded to a stop, but still found herself crashing right into the spartan kick aimed for the center of her chest.

She flew back, landing with a thud and a gasp of pain on her back.

Naruto rolled onto her stomach, avoiding the stomp aimed for her gut just barely, rolling again and then flinging herself to a standing position.

"You're quick." Naruto complimented, looking at the ring leader that had completely outclassed her with his speed. "And strong."

Her hand pressed against her chest, already feeling the bruising blooming beneath her clothes.

The ponytailed boy scoffed, brown eyes glaring.

"I know." He stated. "Which is why I know I'll beat you."

"And you need a bunch of guys to help you with that because…?" The blonde prompted dryly, as if she hadn't just been booted.

"None of your business." He spat. "Get her."

Naruto bristled in alarm, but that didn't hold her back long, and she was making to exit once more. Unfortunately, someone grabbed her hair from behind.

Naruto cried out in pain, twisting despite it to face her attacker, balling her fist up tightly and smashing it into the guy's chin. He fell back, but his hold on her golden locks did not relinquish. Naruto was forced to stumble with him, and when he fell onto his back, she landed in top of him, the air once again knocked from her lungs.

Before she could regain her bearings she was kicked in her side, wheezing with pain as she was forced off of the older boy.

"You're gonna pay for that cheap shot to my neck you little bitch."

A foot slammed into her head, forcing her cheek into the filthy ground. Stars exploded across her vision as her head screamed as if it would split, her cheek roughly scraping the pavement.

"And for breaking my nose maybe I'll break more than that on you." Another voice sneered, this time a foot crushing down on her hand, trying to force her to release her bokken.

Naruto gritted her teeth.

She wouldn't give them the satisfaction of crying out in pain.

"This little shit knocked me out cold." Complained another boy. "But now that she's down there eating dirt she doesn't seem so tough."

A round of agreements were passed between the boys.

"See?" The leader began haughtily. "If you guys had just gone at her like that in the first place, we would've been seeing little Senketsu-ojou over here like this much sooner."

"Hey, you're right boss. She's just one person."

Frustration blazed hotly within the little blonde's being.

 _'I might not be able to take them all… but this is the last straw.'_ She thought menacingly. _'Kiddie gloves are off…'_

"Get your feet off of me." She growled hatefully.

"What was that?" The one with the pipe jeered, poking her mockingly with said rusty weapon.

"Huh? Kick you some more?" The broken nosed one went on. "Whatever you say~"

They all shared a bout of laughing, maliciously and quite literally kicking her while she was down. Pain burst from multiple points on her body, and she winced from every blow as they took turns. One of them was even stomping her side.

 _'KIDDIE GLOVES OFF!'_ Her mind roared, absolutely done with being hurt.

No one thought about Naruto's restraint. Though she strived to draw no blood with her blade… they easily drew blood from her over and over again. If they kept kicking her she'd die.

Based off of their delighted laughter and the feel of their scorn as they attacked her, they obviously didn't care that much.

Screw not drawing blood.

Her first priority was herself.

Naruto's right hand, still clutching her bokutō, lashed out. She felt its edge connect with flesh, slicing and drawing red immediately.

The result was instantaneous.

The boy leapt back with a howl, only to buckle and cradle his wounded shin. The others were distracted enough that they stopped attacking her, and she used the opportunity to roll onto her back, free hand taking hold of the one who had been stomping her, the one who's nose was broken. She yanked with all the strength she had left, and he was pulled from his feet, back slamming into the concrete and head landing with a sickening crack, abruptly cutting off his cry of alarm.

"What the-"

Naruto was struggling to her feet, but her arm shot out again nevertheless, the tip of her wooden blade piecing the thigh of the boy who's throat she had struck earlier.

She would never forget the sound of his agonized scream.

Naruto withdrew her sword, knowing that the wound was probably only two inches deep, but it flooded with blood as the young teen clutched it in panic, pained tears gushing out of his eyes.

Finally adrenaline began to pump through her veins, giving her battered body temporary, but formidable strength.

With a hoarse battle cry, she slammed her shoulder into the nearest boy, forcing him to stumble back with her body weight. In the split second she had to incapacitate him, she rose her sword with both hands, slashing him diagonally, yet shallowly from his right shoulder to his left hip. Another few, almost eternal seconds went by as he stood absolutely stunned.

The remaining boy's standing watched in horror as blood suddenly sprayed out of the wound. The sight seemed to be too much for him, as his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he collapsed in a dead faint.

Naruto heard someone wretch in the background, and it was enough to get her to turn to face the rest of them.

The four older boys including their leader stared at her in horror.

Naruto's glacial blue eyes alternated between them as she huffed and puffed with exertion. Her blood roared in her ears and her pulse thundered. She was tired but the adrenaline would keep her standing for a while yet.

"Anyone else feeling lucky today?" She growled.

The one with the pipe, who had been the one to vomit, quickly dropped his weapon with a loud, echoing clatter.

He stared at the blonde for a long time, but she felt nothing but anger even as he trembled before her, just like the others.

Naruto narrowed her eyes specifically at him.

He took off running without another word.

"H-hey!" The leader called out. "HEY!"

He was given no response as the boy took off into the night.

Seeming to need no other prompting, the remaining two shot off as well, giving the furious blonde a wide berth.

"You cowards!" The leader roared. "Fucking limp dick cowards!"

"Now it looks like it's just me and you anyways." Naruto spoke up, her tone low, her eyes narrowed and her temper atrocious.

How dare this little wannabe thug confront her. Have his punk friends kick and stomp on her? How dare he look at her like _she_ was the one in the wrong?

Like _he_ was the one who should be angry?

"I'm the best." The boy said, sounding as if he was on the verge of some sort of breakdown. "I'm the best, not you and your stupid little nickname. I AM!"

So it was about being the greatest. The toughest. Honestly, it always was, but it should never have escalated so far.

Usually all Naruto had to do was knock her challengers around a little and they ran off to lick their wounds, grudgingly respecting her and her blood covered fists.

But this guy… _this guy…_

Something was wrong with him.

Naruto could see it. She could see it in the nearly manic gleam in his brown eyes. See it in the way he swiped up the discarded pipe on the ground and shoved away the boy who silently cried and clutched his bleeding shin.

"Move." The leader snarled, knocking the injured boy onto his side.

The shoved boy cried out, and he then began trying to stand up, to limp away.

The other two that had hit the ground remained there, unconscious.

"You're not the best." Naruto said. "You're a nobody. Just like me, and just like your stupid friends that left you here to get your butt kicked."

"I'LL KILL YOU!" He screamed, charging at her.

It would always unsettle Naruto how easily people said those three words. It would always be something she disapproved of. Didn't they realize that saying such a thing was serious and that it couldn't be taken back? That you shouldn't say it unless you really meant it?

She didn't care how angry the person was. How wronged they felt they were. If it wasn't something they absolutely had to do, they shouldn't try to kill anyone. And if they simply said it because they were angry… then that was worse.

Because you shouldn't spew such hateful words for such a petty reason.

It was… disgusting.

Humans were disgusting. And she was tired of being hurt because of her filthy species.

Naruto blocked his incoming attack with a loud clank, holding her bokutō between herself and the offending pipe. She grunted with effort, her bruises crying out as she strained and agitated them. The taller boy was looking at her with those same enraged eyes, a snarl curling his lips.

"I'm gonna kill you!" He swore, pulling one of his hands away and making to punch her.

She danced back, lashing out and slicing his arm for his effort. He snarled and snatched his hand back, the scratch lining with beads of ruby.

"Bitch! Little bitch! I'll kill you!"

He charged again and swung at her wildly. Because he was so angry, he was sloppy, and even though Naruto was tired and bruised, it made it easier for her to evade him, his swings only sometimes brushing her.

"Shut up!" Naruto bellowed.

His voice was annoying, and he was so pathetic. He had no reason to want to hurt her so badly. Nobody had a good reason to want to hurt her. They just did, and she hated people like him. Hated them so much she could almost taste it.

And it was like red hot ashes on her tongue. After her hatred flared up it stayed with her for hours afterward.

"I'll kill you!" He screamed.

Naruto finally completely snapped, and she shot forward with a speed that would make Shisui proud.

In the blink of an eye she was behind the boy, her back facing his.

Two seconds.

Crimson sprayed up from his shoulder as it split open.

He screamed, dropping his pipe to instead clutch at his gushing wound, falling to his knees. He managed to turn, showing Naruto those scornful eyes. Those eyes with the desire to cause her hurt, those eyes that blamed her for the pain she had inflicted upon him.

 _'People…'_ She thought, taking a step towards him, blood dripping off of her bokken and hitting the ground with inaudible little plip plops. _'They always blame me… they hurt me first. But when I hurt them back I'm the one who's wrong.'_

How was that fair?

Why was nothing fair when she was concerned? Her eyes grew ever colder.

And finally, the stupid "boss" seemed to notice. He noticed that at the end of all the crap that had just happened, she was the one standing. Just as she had warned him from the beginning.

" _You…_ " Naruto hissed, now looming over him, every bit as menacing as her moniker.

Senketsu.

Fresh blood.

And then… for whatever stupid, pathetically unjustified and overly moral reason, Naruto paused. She paused as he winced, bracing for impact, withering under her vengeful gaze.

There was no other way to describe what she had done.

She hesitated.

 _"Listen Sunshine, a shinobi doesn't draw blood if they don't have to."_ Shisui's studious voice reminded from the back of her mind. _"Hurting others is only something to do when you've been given no other choice. I know that's not exactly how the ninja rules spin it... but remember… you're a person before a shinobi."_

That brief moment of hesitation was all one of her previous assailants needed to bash her over the head with something cold and hard.

She didn't know that it was a rock. She didn't know that the attack had come from the boy who's shin she had slashed. She didn't know that he hadn't limped out of the alley, but into the shadows find a new weapon to hurt her with, apparently unable to allow her to hurt his "boss".

In an instant it was lights out.

* * *

Naruto was numb.

She came to groggily, her vision blurry and head feeling as if it was stuffed with cotton. White noise buzzed between her ears, fading in and out.

She wouldn't know for a few minutes that she was being dragged, by her hair of all things through the darkened streets of the village.

She still clutched her wooden sword, despite having been unconscious, the one that had bashed her had not been able to pry it from her fingers like his "boss" had ordered him to.

After a while they were no longer in the streets.

"What now boss?"

"Tie her up with that rope over there." A haughty voice ordered. "We're gonna teach her a lesson."

"What's she gonna learn in here? I already smashed her head in, and she don't look so good."

As if in response, her senses cleared, and she felt the trickle of blood down the back of her neck.

Her head pounded like nothing she'd ever felt before.

"Shut up." The leader sneered. "If I want your stupid opinion some fluffy day in hell I'll ask for it. She's gonna learn her place cause we're gonna leave her tied up in here all by herself for a whole day. We'll see how scary the others think she is after she's been left alone in the dark for a little while."

"Oh boss that's messed up." The goon said, whistling a little. "Not that I care that much. This little turd actually cut me!"

"Well she cut me worse than you, so shut up and do what I said already!"

"O-okay boss…"

Naruto groaned, the smell of rotting wood and mildew filling her nostrils. The hand in her hair dropped her as if she were contagious, her already swimming skull thumping onto the floor.

"Oh, so you're awake now, Senketsu-ojou?" A familiar and quite annoying voice greeted. "I guess maybe you are a little tough. But it's not gonna matter after we're through with you."

"Bastards…" Naruto slurred, shifting weakly.

"Big talk." The leader mocked. "But like I said, it's not gonna matter."

"Wh-where…?" Naruto struggled to form a coherent response.

Kami why was her head so dizzy? Why was her vision so murky? And where were they? What had these chumps done to her?

"We're just in a comfy abandoned warehouse." The leader informed her. "I'm gonna pay you back for what you did to me. A day in the dark with your head split open like that oughta teach you. I'm gonna string you up like an ornament. It'll be fun to see you hanging up all useless like that."

"F-fuc-"

She choked off with an agonized wail when a foot slammed into her already grievously bruised side.

"Such a filthy mouth, Senketsu-chan~" The leader sang.

"B-bite me…" Naruto rasped, trying to catch her breath as her body ached fiercely.

She absently wished she was numb to sensation again.

"No thanks, brat." He retorted flatly. "Now, tie her up."

"Okay boss."

Naruto felt someone roughly grabbing her arms, their hands clammy and calloused. She weakly wriggled away, repulsed.

"D-don't t- _touch_ me…!" She hissed with as much venom as she was able.

"Still full of fire even when you've already lost." The leader mocked. "It's almost sad."

 _'Maybe for now…'_ She thought spitefully. _'But you won't get away with this.'_

Nobody was ever going to get away with hurting her ever again. As soon as she was able… she would come for them.

Naruto felt herself yanked up, forced into a sitting position, and her blurry vision cleared just enough for her to see the outline of someone holding something long. Probably the rope she would be tied up with so that they could "string her up like an ornament".

Her assailant moved a little closer, and with a burst of strength Naruto shot her head forward, connecting her forehead with his. It put her on her back with fresh supernovas dancing across her vision, but it was worth it.

"Ow!" The goon yelled, presumably clutching at his throbbing forehead. "You little-"

He cut himself off, standing up and kicking her in her side again. Naruto's pain flared, spit flying from her gasping mouth. But even still, she was struck again, and again, and _again._

 _'N-no more…'_

"Stop!" The leader snapped. "Are you stupid? You might actually kill her like that you fuck nugget. Calm down and just do what I told you to."

"Okay boss."

Naruto was getting really tired of that obedient and stupid phrase.

The next time she was grabbed, it was once again by her hair, and she winced deeply as the harsh grip pulled at the cut on the back of her head, sending fresh blood oozing down the back of her skull.

She was forced into a sitting position again, her back meeting what felt like the wooden rails of a balcony.

Immediately Naruto felt how rickety and old the wood was, and assuming they were on the second floor of the abandoned warehouse, she knew she was in grave danger.

"H-hey…" The blonde slurred.

"You're still awake? Dang." The leader chuckled. "I don't think I gave you enough credit. Now when everyone knows _I'm_ the greatest, I'll be way more respected than _you_ ever were."

 _'These idiots!'_ She thought both spitefully and worriedly.

"N-no… _listen…!_ "

It was too late.

The wood crackled, groaning before giving an audible snap as it gave way. Naruto's breath was stolen from her lungs as she was taken into free fall, right above a pile of rubble with hazardous twisting pipes sticking out of it.

"Shit!" The leader exclaimed.

"Oh my god!"

The sound of pierced flesh was soon followed by the squelch of flowing blood.

* * *

Idate was a lot of things. A killer, he was not.

He'd just… he'd just wanted to be strong. He'd wanted his brother to see that he was strong, someone worth acknowledging, someone more important than his stupid job in the T&I department.

He hadn't wanted this.

He'd just…

He'd just wanted to be the best.

"You idiot you killed her!" Idate croaked, running quaking hands through his ponytailed hair, messing the spikes up even more.

The brown haired boy didn't know that his knees could feel so weak that they could be likened to thin rubber. He didn't know that so much blood could be inside one little girl.

As soon as Naruto had fallen, the banister the idiot he called a friend had leaned her up against _in a condemned falling apart even as they stood there building_ snapped, he'd rushed over to peer down at her in panic.

Idate's eyes dilated, color draining from his face as he watched Naruto lay as still as any corpse, four black, foot long and impossibly twisted pipes skewering her through her gut. There were shreds of flesh clinging to the black metal, and they were dyed a deep red. Her hair was fanned out around her, her bokutō still miraculously clutched in her hand. Ribbons of blood trickled out of both sides of her slightly agape mouth, and her eyes were half mast, staring up into nothingness.

Even more blood pooled out from beneath her, spreading out by the second.

He rushed down the second floor stairs, worry amplifying as they creaked and groaned in protest beneath his weight.

"I-I didn't mean to!" The idiot choked. "I… I _swear_ I didn't! I was just trying to do what you said boss!"

Idate didn't care about his blubbering. He didn't care at all.

How was he supposed to face his brother after this? How could he justify letting things go this far?

The young preteen finally made it to Naruto, feeling bile rise in the back of his throat at the thick, metallic smell of blood.

"Oh my god I'm _so_ sorry!" The idiot sobbed, shaking like a leaf in storm, peering with real unadulterated terror at the child that was impaled in front of them. "I'm sorry!"

Idate's mind went completely blank when his eyes found Naruto's still form again. The smell of blood was thick. She was already paling.

They… they had really killed her.

It was only supposed to be a joke. An admittedly vindictive one, but Idate had had every intention of returning the next day to untie her.

Moonlight streamed in from a hole in the ceiling, setting her still form alight.

Her eyes, heavily lidded and murky, stared. They stared and _stared_ but she didn't do anything.

She drained of blood but she didn't do anything.

She was dead.

Idate turned away from the horrid sight and he ran.

"Boss!?"

He didn't answer the despaired wail.

"Boss don't leave me!"

He ran and ran and he tried to outrun the atrocious act he had taken part in.

But he couldn't outrun the thick smell of Naruto's blood, clinging to his sinuses and making him nauseous. Couldn't outrun the image of her lifeless eyes, searing into his own retinas to torture him.

Couldn't outrun one single thought.

 _I killed someone._

He ran faster but he was not escaping.

* * *

 **Pretty sure Ojou can be translated to "miss", so Idate was calling her Miss Fresh Blood, as Senketsu means "fresh blood".**


	7. Perspectives

**This chapter was so long so I had to split it up. Then I decided that the other part of it needed some revamping, so you'll have to wait for that one.**

 **WARNING: Blood, dark themes, and just general drama.**

 **I don't own Naruto or the cover image, thank you all for reading.**

* * *

The air smelled of stagnant water, and it was cool as it passed through her lungs.

When consciousness returned to her fully, she realized she was lying in almost icy liquid, the source of the smell. A constant rhythmic plip plop echoed in the distance as her blue eyes began to focus.

Naruto was greeted with by surrounding blackness, but she could make out a narrow ceiling with strange swirling runes carved into it.

"Where...?" The blonde rasped, trailing off.

She pushed herself up and out of the water, looking around, finding herself in a long hallway with more carved swirling patterns.

Curiously, as soon as she got out of the water, she no longer felt as if she was wet.

"What the heck?" She wondered.

Naruto would've loved to muse a little further, maybe even shout a bit, but she felt oddly absent, like… like she felt when she knew she was dreaming. Present yet not. But something was different.

Somehow she knew she wasn't dreaming.

The blonde noticed a red glow straight in front of her, a narrow doorway standing in the distance. She glanced behind her to find more darkness, an abyss that she wasn't confident enough to venture through.

And so she made her way towards the light, her footsteps noisy wet plunks as she went.

She drew closer to the red light, still weighed down by a persistent lethargy.

But she finally reached the doorway, the red light turning out to be a little more orange as she made it into a large room.

The biggest room she had ever seen.

The walls appeared to be rust colored, covered in more odd patterns, and the floor was a deep pool of water that reflected the ceiling. And even though Naruto stood on top of the water, she didn't sink, she didn't plunge into its depths.

"I've _gotta_ be dreaming." She breathed.

It wasn't just because of the water. But because there were huge jail-like bars across the large room, stretching from ceiling to the water that should've been the floor. And holding those bars closed in the center was a single scrap of paper reading 封印.

Fūin.

Or seal.

"A seal…?" Naruto's breath hitched.

Such a large cage… what was the seal containing? Where was she? How did she get here? Questions that she couldn't answer herself flew through her head, furthering her anxiety and confusion.

The bars were behemoth, big enough for her to easily fit through, so whatever was behind it had to be huge as well.

There was no way it was moderately normal in size.

It gave off malice, and pain, and hate.

So much so that it nearly forced her on her knees.

The blonde quickly drew in her emotional shields, not realizing she had lowered them to get a feel for whatever was trapped behind those bars.

She had never felt something so overwhelming.

Not even the combined negative emotions of everyone in the village at once crushing down on her could measure up to that hatred.

No, she hadn't had that happen before, but Naruto just knew that human anger could not hold a candle to that.

"What are you?" She asked shakily, knowing that it could hear her.

She knew, she knew there was something dwelling in the shadows of that cage. And that's what it was. A cage for something so close to evil it was a wonder she was even still standing.

A deep, menacing chuckle resonated throughout the sewer-like room.

 **"Pitiful flesh bag…"** A monstrous voice growled. **"Why do you not come closer? Look upon me and see for yourself?"**

Naruto leaned against the right side of the wall next to the doorway she'd entered through, her fear making her knees feel weak.

She still felt faint, as if she was on the verge of a heavy sleep, but that was not enough to distract her from the terror the presence across the room inspired within her.

"What I feel from over here is good enough for me to know not to get closer." She gasped, panting because she didn't know her heart could beat so fast, could thunder so loudly. "What are you!"

 **"So foolish."** The voice rumbled jeeringly. **"You study that cursed art, do you not? Then you know… this seal will not allow me to hurt you."**

The way the presence uttered seal caused Naruto to flinch. It had managed to spew it so hatefully she was astounded by it.

 _'Calm down…'_ She told herself. _'This isn't like you! Don't be scared, it's sealed away, and you're way over here. Just figure out what's going on so you can leave!'_

Naruto nodded to herself, dragging in a shuddering breath.

"I don't know anything." Naruto finally said, using her hand against the wall to claw herself back up, because at some point she'd slid down. She shakily stepped away from the wall, turning fully to face the cage full of impossible shadows. "I don't know where I am, I don't know how I got here, and I don't know what you are."

 **"You don't know because you do not want to know."** The presence snarled. **"But I know that you are not nearly as stupid as you allow others to believe."**

Naruto's brows furrowed, her confusion momentarily pushing back her fear.

"What?" She asked.

 **"You know what seals do. You study them. You have read about the bijuu, large sentient constructs of chakra. How they cannot be killed, only dispersed."** The voice said, somehow getting more angry as it continued on. **"You know that instead they are sealed away. You know that other creatures of your pathetic race despise you for simply being alive. You know that your cursed day of birth is the same day that wretched Yondaime Hokage died to "defeat" the Kyuubi no Kitsune."**

Naruto's pupils dilated, her breath escaping her in short panicked bursts as her pulse escalated again.

 **"But how does a pathetic human defeat a being far beyond its comprehension and above even death itself?"** The voice asked, seeming to have gotten control over its temper again. **"Bijuu cannot be killed. They are not alive in a mortal sense. So how are they "defeated"?"**

"No…" Naruto shook her head, denial making her voice go up several octaves. "NO!"

 **" _Yes._ "** The voice rumbled, malicious humor in its tone at her skyrocketing despair. **"Yes, you know… don't you, Naruto?"**

The blonde fell to her knees, her hands catching her before she could face plant atop the water. She stared at her reflection, her eyes zeroing in on the whiskers that marred her face.

" _It's not true…!_ " She whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut. "It's not, you're _lying!_ "

 **"You have known in the back of your mind for quite some time."** It continued callously. **"But consciously you have refused to put the pieces together, because you are pathetic, and you are weak."**

"Shut up!" She screamed.

 **"DO NOT SPEAK TO ME THAT WAY YOU INSOLENT SACK OF FILTH!"**

Naruto froze at the enraged bellow that shook the room to its very foundations.

A few seconds of unbearable silence ticked by. Naruto waited with a patience she hadn't known herself capable of, and she was not surprised when the presence spoke again.

 **"I am the great Kyuubi no Kitsune."** The voice declared boldly, once again in its calmer beastly tones. **"You are my Jinchūriki. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you become less pitiful, however infinitesimal the difference may be."**

Naruto didn't really understand what the creature was saying at some points, as she was only nine, but she gathered that the Kyuubi, the literal nine tailed fox was sealed inside of her.

Everything slammed into her being with such clarity for several seconds she just. couldn't. _breathe._

The reason she was shunned.

The reason she was alone.

The reason she was pained.

The reason…

The reason was...

It was because of something she had no control over. Something that she had never asked for, wanted, or even knew about. But even still, they treated her like she was less than because of something _she could not control._

.

.

.

 **"As amusing as it is to see you wallow like that, there is a more pressing matter afoot."** The Kyuubi rumbled, breaking Naruto out of whatever darkness she had been sinking into.

"What?" Naruto asked, looking again to the cage across the room.

She flinched when the Kyuubi threw itself against the bars with a resounding bang, its blackened lips pulled back into a menacing snarl, razor white teeth glistening in the orange-red light.

Its eyes were huge, a vermillion color that perfectly translated the absolute hatred that lived within the massive fox.

 **"You are dying."** The fox sneered, horrible gaze drilling into her. **"I closed the wound to stop any further blood loss, but you will simply have to reopen it to escape."**

Any other thoughts the situation may have caused to fester within the blonde were forgone; instead she miraculously focused on what was most important at the moment.

"I'm what!?"

 **"I do not repeat myself."** Kyuubi said darkly. **"Listen and listen well. Though I cannot die, I will disperse if you do while sealed within you. It is a particularly unpleasant process to reform, and I will be significantly weakened until I completely reform. So, I will save your loathsome flesh bag body to avoid that. You must escape the foolish predicament you got yourself into, and quickly find another human that can help you."**

"What! What happened? How am I dying!?"

 **"You do not remember being gored by those miserable little apes?"** The Kyuubi scoffed. **"It matters not. Once you free yourself, I will work to reclose your wound so that you do not expire from blood loss. But the rest is up to you. I cannot talk to you while you're conscious, this detestable seal is much too tight at this point in time."**

"B-but-"

 **"Go, you stupid human."** The fox snarled. **"You have wasted enough time just getting into this room by lying about unconscious. There is not much time. Your weak little body will not be able to take the stress it is under for much longer."**

Things were moving much too fast all of a sudden. Naruto didn't even know how to leave. She didn't know how to react to the fact that she was apparently dying and that her entire existence had been lied to her about her whole life.

 **"GO!"** The Kyuubi roared, all semblance of "patience" expired. **"GO NOW YOU FOOLISH CHILD!"**

Naruto flinched yet again, but she was moving nevertheless immediately afterwards, standing on rubbery knees and stumbling back through the darkened hallway from which she'd entered.

She didn't know which way to go. But she was swallowed in the shadows as she gained strength in her legs. And suddenly, she was sprinting through the unknown.

She ran until gradually she was no more.

* * *

The taste of iron in her mouth was the first thing she noticed upon awakening.

Images flashed behind her eyes as she remembered walking home after dinner at Ichiraku's. Remembered being ambushed. Fighting with all her might after a day of training. Something hitting her head after a moment of hesitation. Waking up after being dragged like a bag of trash to an abandoned warehouse.

Being kicked. Falling.

 _Pain._

Oh my god so much agonizingly loud, unbearable pain like nothing she'd ever experienced before— and then… darkness.

Naruto blinked hazily, her eyes focusing. After she'd fallen it had been lights out, then she woke again in stagnant water. And then…

" _Kyuubi…!_ " She breathed hoarsely.

Naruto's blue eyes found the ceiling, it appeared to be on its last legs, punched through with holes. Naruto could see that the sky was darkened, but it appeared that the sun was steadily rising based on the hue of the blue. Meaning it had been several hours since she'd last seen the punks that had left her to die.

She sluggishly dragged her head to the right, her bleary vision finding the sight of her hand, clutching her bokutō, and then to her left. Her other hand was relaxed, fingers curled slightly.

She couldn't really feel anything. She could barely feel her neck enough to move it. It was like her throat was a weak daisy stem and her head was a boulder attached to it.

Even still, Naruto managed to turn her head again so that she was looking at the ceiling, and then she looked down, towards her feet.

She couldn't scream, her throat was sticky yet dry with the metallic taste of blood, so she just sort of whimpered and released gasps that sounded like she'd swallowed a bucket of rusty nails.

Naruto's vision suddenly tunneled, her eyes landing on the four long, twisted pipes protruding from her middle.

There were _pipes_ sticking out of her.

Fear.

Bloodcurdling, unspeakable levels of fear roared through her being. Her pulse for the nth time in the last few hours raced, her breath rushing out of her metal tasting mouth in abrupt little bursts. Her free hand lifted slowly, so pitifully weak even though she had intended to fling it against the nearest pipe. When her palm touched the sticky, blood slicked metal, she weakly wrapped her fingers around it, trying to break it off in vain.

As she dreaded, it didn't budge one bit. And so, her fear exploded into full blown panic.

"Help…" She choked, stressed tears welling in her eyes. "Someone… anyone… please help me…"

No one came to save her.

Naruto had never experienced such feelings of anxiety, hopelessness, and misery.

It was almost unreal, but she knew it was very much reality.

She sobbed a little, straining to sit up. Unfortunately, shifting even slightly felt like someone with razors for fingernails was trying to pull apart the skin of her abdomen.

The sound that left her throat at the awful sensation was like nothing she ever heard before.

Helplessly, she let her hand fall away from the pipe and thump back against the elevated slab of plaster she was lying on.

Her vision blurred with heavy tears, and she cried and cried but no one came. No one heard. She was utterly alone in the worst way possible, and so she cried some more until she felt dizzy and nearly blacked out. Naruto blubbered and choked on her sobs until her head ached and she began coughing violently, marginally tearing the flesh that had sealed closed around the pipes.

The resulting pain turned her coughing to hoarse cries that sounded like they belonged to someone who had screamed their voice box nearly silent. They were hoarse and breathy but clearly communicated the anguish she was in.

 _'I'm gonna die'_ She thought, petrified. _'I… I don't want to die… not like this… I…'_

"I'm scared." She rasped.

Naruto was so scared.

She… she hadn't even been this scared when she was facing the Kyuubi. This dread was on a different plane of human comprehension.

Naruto exhaled shakily, her focus shifting a little, remembering.

 _ **"I closed the wound to stop any further blood loss, but you will simply have to reopen it to escape."**_ The Kyuubi's voice rang from her memory.

She breathed in, and exhaled again.

 _ **"Once you free yourself, I will work to reclose your wound so that you do not expire from blood loss. But the rest is up to you. I cannot talk to you while you're conscious…"**_

Naruto blinked, a few more tears sliding out of her eyes. She was trapped.

If she stayed she would definitely die.

If she managed to get free she _might_ not die.

Either way it wasn't looking too good for her, but… but…

"I don't want to die." She whispered, tortured.

Naruto turned her head to the right, eyes landing on the bokken clutched weakly in her grasp.

"Shisui…" She muttered.

If she died… she'd never see Shisui again.

 _'What…?'_

Why was she thinking of him at a time like this? Of all things she could be thinking about on her possible deathbed, why did he come to mind?

 _'Because he's all I have.'_

Fresh tears stung her eyes.

He was.

Shisui was the only one who hadn't lied to her with his smile. There was no pity in him when he looked at her, like when she was with Iruka, or Teuchi, or Ayame, or even the Sandaime.

When Shisui was with her, he was just with her, and they had fun. Naruto remembered every smile he had shown her so far, and it caused her blood stained lips to tremble, a wealth of sadness opening up in her chest at the thought of never seeing those smiles again.

Of never seeing him again.

Her _friend._

And so, Naruto moved.

She had thought her voice was mostly gone, because before all she could muster were pained rasps… but this…

This horrible, agonizing rending... the feeling of her blood gushing from the resulting tearing of her flesh made her _scream._

It was impossible. It was inexplicable.

Her weak hands reached out, taking hold of the sticky pipes, trying to force herself into a sitting position. Her arms quaked from the effort, and she screamed long and loud.

Still...

No one came to save her.

* * *

Shisui sighed happily when he finally made his way back through the village gates, getting approval from the eternal Chūnin guards to go through.

The young Uchiha bid his three teammates farewell, and couldn't help the grin that spread across his face when the afternoon sun shined down on him, warming his face.

It reminded him of Naruto, who was sunlight in human form, (she was just in denial about it). He knew she had a heart bigger than the earth, she was just shy, among other things. It was cute.

"Speaking of my Sunshine, I do believe it's time for a little Fun Time with Shisui." He muttered gleefully, mischievously rubbing his hands together.

He already felt a plan forming in his head.

He'd go home, put his pack away, shower, and then pop into Naruto's apartment. She usually slept in on Sundays, so he made it a point to invite himself over for breakfast when he was free on said day, usually setting her fuse off by poking her or scaring the daylights out of her by staring her awake.

Shisui snickered behind his hand and made his way towards his house. Yes, he owned a house, on the very edge of the Uchiha compound. Basically within it, but not. He liked his space you see, and plus, some of his relatives were just too reminiscent. He knew his parents had been great shinobi and people. Having it talked about all the time didn't change much of anything but the nature of his mood.

Shisui sighed.

He shook his head slightly at the dark turn his thoughts had suddenly taken, and then hustled home.

The sooner he could be with Naruto, the sooner he would be reminded that life truly wasn't all bad.

* * *

Freshly showered, wearing all black and his brown shoulder holster for his tantō, (and hair not even close to groomed), Shisui made his way over the rooftops towards Naruto's apartment. It was a ways away from his own place, truthfully on a different side of the village, but he didn't mind the journey.

He liked to watch the streets of Konoha when he traveled. It was peaceful.

After a few minutes, the eleven year old landed with a nearly inaudible _clack_ atop the red roof tiles making up the awning over Naruto's balcony.

He hopped down, onto the balcony, which was the home for many of the household plants that Naruto cared for.

She had a surprisingly strong green thumb.

Shisui swiftly shunshined into her room, not feeling the least bit guilty or as if he was intruding, because if Naruto had truly not wanted him to just show up, she would have made it known in a heartbeat, and he would have respected that and stopped in a heartbeat.

But he was confused to find her bed messily made as usual, meaning that she wasn't sleeping in. When he stretched his senses, he didn't sense her presence nearby.

The apartment was empty.

"Weird…" He murmured.

Shisui's dark eyes darted about the room with walls covered in fuīnjutsu sketches and posters for popular action movies.

Again, as usual it was pretty neat, in an organized chaos sort of way, and it smelled like Naruto did, a mixture of something sweet, like sugar cookies, and her preferred soap, "fresh autumn".

But something was strange. Usually her room had the scent of trees lingering inside of it because she almost always had one of her balcony doors open. She enjoyed fresh air, so if she'd left, closing the doors as she did when leaving, then the smell should still be there, even if faintly.

The room smelled almost stagnant. Not unpleasantly, but like no one had been moving around in it for several hours.

Shisui pursed his lips, blurring with shunshin again, only to reappear in her living room. It was as it always was.

A modest apartment with buttercream walls. There was a dark wood kitchenette to the left of the apartment with stainless steel kitchen appliances, and polished wood flooring. There was also a round table setup with two orange wing chairs on either side of it. To the right of her home were two windows and ceils that held well cared for house plants, a dark bookshelf filled to the brim with Academy textbooks, and how to books on various things.

Naruto's tan carpeted home also had a chocolate colored couch with all kinds of different colored patches on it from where she'd doctored it up when there was a tear. There was a coffee table before the couch for whatever reason and across from that a tv stand with said mostly unused tv sitting on top of it.

This was normal.

All of it was very normal.

What _wasn't_ normal, was the smell.

No, his sense of smell wasn't super human, he was no Inuzuka, not even a Hatake, but Shisui knew the smell of a room when it hadn't been occupied for many hours.

It was faint, but very apparent, because if Naruto had been in her apartment... say, something as random as three hours ago, it would show.

She hadn't.

Shisui didn't know where she had been, where she was, or how long she hadn't been in her apartment but he knew something was amiss.

He didn't have a sense of foreboding because anything could've happened, and that didn't necessarily mean it was bad, but nevertheless, he would find out. You could never be too careful after all, (at least not with the current situation).

In a blink he was gone, present again on the roof of Naruto's apartment building. He flashed through a few handseals, gathering the needed chakra for the technique.

 _Boar→Dog→Bird→Monkey→Ram_

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu." Shisui muttered.

He held his hand out, the back facing towards the sky as a small poof of smoke appeared. An ebony crow landed on the back of his hand, grey feet curling over the side of the pale skin, dangerous talons resting against his palm.

Shisui stared the black bird in its intelligent eyes.

"I'm looking for my Sunshine." He said.

No more words needed to be spoken, the bird took flight.

* * *

 **I don't want you guys to think the pipes were huge and nearly splitting her in half. I myself imagined them to be about the size of the chakra receivers Pein uses.**


	8. Saved At Last

**Warning: Blood, dark themes, and just general drama.**

 **I noticed in Sacrifice I made Shisui basically perfect, so this is my attempt at making him more human. Also, this isn't fully edited, so... I apologize for any typos or weird wording.**

 **I don't own Naruto or the cover image.**

* * *

Naruto's face was twisted with affliction and the tension of determined effort, blood bubbling between her clenched teeth.

She nearly slid back down, the agony was just too much, but before she could give up, a miracle happened.

All four of the rusty pipes snapped at once.

Naruto stiffened in alarm, and then her body fell slack as her vision faded out, falling onto her side. Whimpering, she curled into a pained ball, shaking, bloodied hands pressing into her abdomen. She winced when her sticky fingers touched the broken off, sharpened edges of the four pipes lodged in her gut.

Again, she reminded herself of what the Kyuubi had said.

 _ **"Once you free yourself, I will work to reclose your wounds so that you do not expire from blood loss. But the rest is up to you. I cannot talk to you while you're conscious…"**_

Hazy blue eyes opened slowly, blinking sluggishly, trying to shut on their own. Naruto fought the urge with all her might, carefully unfurling her body, breathing heavily and trying not to cry again.

Slowly, she reached out her slick right hand, using it to push herself up, off of the floor. Her arm shook visibly from the effort, giving way before she could even get close to getting off the ground. She face planted, lying there for several moments because she was just so freaking tired.

"Again." She mumbled, red leaking from her mouth.

 _'Come on…'_ She urged herself. _'Come on, get up. I've got to get up!'_

Her left hand, which had gotten squished against her wounds when she'd fallen, was slowly pulled out from beneath her.

Naruto's hands were face down on the slab of plaster she was lying on, and she tried. She tried so hard to get herself to move.

The little blonde managed to push herself up again, but the process seemed like a millenia. Red gushed out of her injuries and splattered across the floor.

 _Splash! Plip, plop, drip, drop._

" _Hnngh!_ " She squeezed out, eyes dilating from the strain.

She managed to get onto her knees, just taking a moment to huff and puff in exertion. She tried to center herself, to gather the strength needed to push off of her knees and stand.

But her knees, they were just so weak. Naruto's legs felt like they were made of wet paper.

"I can't…" She whined, falling to her knees for the nth time. Slowly, she turned her head, looking for something, anything that could help her to the door.

Sky blue eyes widened when they landed on the large puddle of blood that surrounded the broken off pipes she'd been gored on. There was a blobbish person shape in its center where she'd been laying.

 _'Oh Kami…'_

If Naruto didn't feel as terrible as she already did, she'd be nauseous. The blonde tore her eyes away from the egregious sight, instead shifting them to something that would be more helpful.

A dark rosewood bokutō.

 _'My bokken!'_ Naruto thought, shifting on her knees, crawling the short distance to the wooden sword and reaching for it on the other side of the broken off pipes, trying to ignore the way her pants stuck to the congealing liquid on the floor.

Naruto took hold of the hilt as quickly as she could, dragging it over to herself.

"C'mon…" She rasped, trying to tighten her hold, but her fingers felt unsurprisingly bloodless. "C'mon!"

Naruto placed the tip of her bokutō against the floor, using it to push up from her sitting position shakily, almost like a cane. Her wounds screamed at her, protesting, geysers of blood spurting from the plugged holes.

 _'Okay…'_ The blonde thought, taking one uncertain step towards the door. _'One foot in front of the other.'_

Naruto counted the steps in her head, gritting her bloodied teeth, and forcing her eyes to bulge slightly as they fought to drift closed.

 _Two…_

 _Three…_

 _Four…_

 _Five…_

 _Six..._

With each step her legs shook harder and harder, her knees bending father and father, until _finally—_

 _Seve—_

"Hnngh!" Naruto choked.

She collapsed.

"N-no…" Naruto murmured, peering through her mussed bangs, towards the door she hadn't even made it halfway to.

 _'Not yet! I've gotta… I've gotta get up!'_

A little more. She could keep it up a little more.

Even if her pain felt like it had a pulse of its own. Even if her eyes felt heavier with each blink. Even if her body felt fainter and fainter with each breath.

She could do it. She could.

"I-I… can." Naruto whispered.

And so she got up again, leaning heavily against her bokken, using it as a crutch.

The first step took nearly ten minutes, but she did it.

The remains of the pipes dug into her flesh the more she strained, and she remembered suddenly at a particularly terrible stabbing sensation that the Kyuubi had said it would work to close her wounds once she had freed herself.

If there were still pieces of metal lodged in her abdomen she would continue to lose blood until the fox could close the wounds properly. Naruto clenched her left fist around her bokutō, pulling her sticky, red covered right away, shakily bringing it to the four inch long rusty protrusion to the bottom right of her belly button.

Her jacket was soaked with both old and fresh blood, torn where she had been pierced. Naruto looked up to the warehouse roof, examining the holes up there when her fingers brushed the hazardous metal in her gut.

She dragged in a nervous breath, full of dread.

Her fingers tightened around the pipe's circumference.

She exhaled, and yanked.

" _Aaagghh!_ "

The seemingly four inch pipe had scraped between her stressed and bleeding wound, sending fresh spurts of crimson out as she had pulled. She stopped when it was too much, but it had been enough, because it fell out the rest of the way, clattering against the floor and rolling a few inches away harmlessly. It had been much longer than it appeared, stretching seven inches.

Naruto panted, eyes wide, mind almost unable to compute the fact that that thing had been inside of her.

She paused, feeling more warm life fluid steadily staining her jacket.

 _'Three more to go.'_ She thought grimly.

* * *

Shisui had sent his summon on its way, making his way first to Naruto's usual haunts.

First the training grounds he knew her to use. He checked them from top to bottom, in every unlikely spot with the help of two shadow clones in case she had over exerted herself and succumbed to chakra exhaustion.

She often pushed herself to her limits, and though they were quite high, because she had a ridiculous amount of chakra for someone her age, she still managed to challenge herself.

Unfortunately she wasn't at any of the training grounds.

"Okay, let's try Ichiraku's." The Uchiha muttered, form blurring with shunshin.

He zipped through the entrance of the homely little stand, raising his hand in greeting.

Ayame, who was cleaning the counter with a rag and a spray bottle in hand looked up, grinning at the sight of him. Her brown eyes were warm and welcoming.

"Hiya Shisui-kun." She chirped. "What can I help you with today?"

"Good afternoon." He greeted politely. "Ayame-san, you wouldn't happen to know where Naruto might be, would you?"

A pink flush decorated her cheeks and she smiled at him.

"That is so cute!" She gushed. "You are so cute, you know that? Looking for Naru-chan huh?"

Shisui couldn't help the little grin that titled his lips at Ayame's delighted tone. She swore that there was something more going on between Naruto and Shisui. But honestly they were only friends.

But hey, in a few years, if it became something more, let's just say Shisui didn't have any complaints about that.

"Yup, I'm looking for my lost Sunshine. Has she been around?"

"Mm, no. But, she did tell my dad yesterday night at closing that she'd swing by after school." Ayame said, giving him an apologetic shrug. "I heard them talking when I was cleaning in the back."

"Yesterday?" Shisui's brows furrowed in confusion. "Yesterday was Saturday Ayame-san. Why would she be at school today?"

"Well, yesterday she trained all day, but she was supposed to be in detention with Iruka-san." Ayame explained, shaking her head fondly at the absent blonde's antics. "From what she told me, I figured she'd been a little cranky while you were off on some mission, so she acted out a little in class and was given Saturday detention. She didn't go, so Iruka-san showed up here while she was hanging out after her training and informed her that she was to show up today, and she'd get additional homework for the rest of the new school week for ditching."

Shisui found himself shaking his head in fond exasperation as well. Though, it did make him happy to hear that she had missed him in her own grumpy way.

"Honestly…" He said.

"Yeah." Ayame scoffed, smirking. "She's something else isn't she?"

"Mhm." Shisui hummed.

Ayame tilted her head after a short pause, and Shisui's trained eyes immediately caught the gesture.

"What's the matter?" He asked.

"Now that I think about it, Naru-chan is late." The teen mused aloud. "Iruka-san said her detention would be from eight am. to eleven. It's half past one."

Warning bells sounded off in Shisui's head.

"Ayame-san…" He began. "Do you remember what time Naruto left and what she told Teuchi-san when she said she would come here today?"

"She left at around nine thirty." Ayame said, shrewdly catching the seriousness in him. "She said "I'll be here tomorrow after school"."

 _'I'll be here…'_ His mind echoed.

Now, that was curious indeed.

She didn't say "I'll try to be here" or "maybe". She said "I'll be". Meaning she'd had every intention of being at Ichiraku's after her detention hours.

Of course Shisui could be reading way into things, but he never did. On top of that, he knew Naruto. She didn't tell people things that she didn't mean. At least not if she didn't have a good reason to be untruthful. (E.g, saying she didn't like him because she was afraid to get close to him).

Though more presently, however silly, she didn't skip out on ramen.

But ignoring even that, Shisui thought back to the smell in her apartment. The absent, still scent of a place that hadn't been occupied for several hours. The fact of the matter was, Naruto hadn't stepped foot in her apartment since she'd left it the day before to go train.

Meaning, she hadn't made it home last night.

"Ayame, which way does Naruto walk home?" Shisui asked, unease rising in the pit of his stomach.

The teen pursed her lips worriedly, but she didn't make things difficult for him. She was smart.

She would have made an excellent shinobi.

"She takes the alley on Shodaime street, between that pastry shop and used clothes store." Ayame said. "I tell her all the time to go a different way, but she insists it's faster to take the back alleys."

Shisui nodded.

"Thank you." He said.

Before she could beg him to find the little blonde, he was gone in a blink.

When he was present again, he stood at the mouth of the alley Ayame had described. He made his way through, imagining himself to be retracing Naruto's steps, but there was no sign of her. Just the usual things that inhabited shadowed alleyways.

He took a path that he knew would be the shortest way to Naruto's apartment, because that's what she would've done.

He turned into a new alley between two brick buildings. It was darkened even in the daylight, trash strewn about its uneven pavement and battered wooden crates hiding things in shadows were stacked up high on either side.

Only an idiot of the highest caliber could miss the signs of a scuffle laying about.

Of course trash had been blown away by the wind, and even with the light foot traffic from daytime the scene wasn't fresh, but Shisui saw things that most people might overlook. People who weren't trained shinobi.

There were traces of blood smeared, or speckled across the filthy ground at multiple points.

 _'Meaning multiple targets…'_

He made the clone hand seal, a shadow clone poofing into existence to his left. The Uchiha didn't have to say anything, his clone immediately getting to work, inspecting the blood on the ground as Shisui moved about, eyes scanning for anything that might help him with clues.

"Blood's not fresh." His clone called from the other side of the alley. "It's been here for over six hours."

"Probably shortly after Naruto left Ichiraku's. That means it's been way more than six hours. Probably more like sixteen." Shisui muttered, eyes roving over a discarded steel pipe. It was thick. A good improvised weapon.

It was also covered in abrasions, like someone had been swinging it around, but the person it had been used against had been holding something bladed, using it to keep the pipe from striking them.

"Like a sword." He whispered.

 _'Or a bokken.'_ His brain supplied.

A very specific rosewood bokutō with a chakra metal edge that allowed the wooden sword to inflict real slicing damage.

Shisui forced himself to think calmly, making his way over to a rather large rock, big enough to fit into his hand snugly.

He kicked it lightly, flipping it over, mind going blank when his eyes landed on the splotch of darkened red staining the underside of the rock, and the few strands of long blonde hair glued to it that looked almost silver in the scarce sunlight.

"There were at least five people here." His clone deduced, unknowingly snapping its creator out of his numbness. "Maybe seven. Not all of them bled. She got them good though boss."

White hot anger flared in Shisui's chest, and he bit his lip hard, smothering it down.

"These _bastards…_ " Shisui gritted, holding back his temper by a single solitary thread. "They ambushed her in the dark."

He was about to send his clone to go find the ones responsible, but something came to his attention.

He'd known all along that the person had been there, but he had ignored them, because he was occupied with something more important, and he knew that they were civilian.

Shisui shunshined, appearing again in a squat atop two crates, peering down with blood red sharingan eyes at the bearded homeless man lying in a sleeping bag behind several crates.

The man shook like a leaf in storm at Shisui's menacing visage.

"I can hear you breathing." Shisui intoned. "I heard you the moment I got here. Why so scared, hm?"

The dirty man shook even harder, pupils dilating in fear. Shisui held no sympathy for him.

"But you know what stood out to me the most?" Shisui asked, continuing quietly even though he smelled fresh urine coming from the man. "The fact that your breathing grew louder when you heard me say she was ambushed."

"P-please…" The homeless man stuttered, terrified.

"Be quiet." Shisui said.

He didn't yell or snap. He spoke calmly and tonelessly, so petrifying to the older man that the boy might as well have bellowed it like a mad man.

"You were lying here the whole time, weren't you?" Shisui accused quietly. "You listened to them hurt her and you were right here. You didn't even bother to get up and move after they left. You're just… You're _here_."

"Please don't hurt me!" The man wailed, tears falling from his eyes, parting a path through the dirt and grime on his face.

"Where. is. she." Shisui said, voice monotone.

"T-they… th-the boy's that w-were left… I h-heard them say that they would t-take her to the abandoned warehouse on Shodaime s-street!" He stuttered. "P-Please don't hurt me!"

"Oh, I won't." Shisui said, staring with near dead eyes and speaking in a deceptively light tone. "That wouldn't be right. But I will say, the next time you witness someone being attacked, you might want to think about how you would feel if you were them. Would you want someone to watch you be hurt and do nothing?"

The man sobbed in relief when Shisui confirmed that he would lay no hand on him.

Disgust welled within the boy, and his tomoe spun in agitated circles around his pupils.

"Or maybe that would be what you deserve?" Shisui seemed to muse emotionlessly. "I can see that. That would be the perfect karma, wouldn't it? You beaten to death in an alley, and someone hiding and doing nothing to save their own skin. A cycle of poetic justice."

The homeless man froze in terror as Shisui slowly stood atop the crates, crimson eyes drilling into him solemnly.

"You will tell my clone everything you know about what happened here." Shisui intoned. "And if you leave anything out, if you lie, and I don't find every person who is responsible for this, I will hunt you down."

The homeless man began quaking again with a vengeance, and Shisui used substitution with his shadow clone, leaving it to gather the details from the fearful bystander.

He leapt onto the roof of the brick building to the right, feeling his shoulders relax slightly at the sight of his summon flying in the distance, growing closer.

"Looks like you found out where she is." He murmured, swiftly moving to meet the large bird halfway.

After a minute of quick movement he landed on top of a telephone pole, and he stretched his hand out, his crow landing on the back of it.

"You found her, didn't you?" He asked.

The bird dipped its head.

Relief flooded the inside of his chest, but he was still uncertain, still worried.

"Is she alive?" He asked quietly.

Another dip.

 _'Thank Kami.'_ He thought, outwardly breathing a little shakily.

"Can I make it to her in time?"

Instead of responding, the bird took flight, heading for whence it came, a black blurr.

Shisui followed.

* * *

Naruto awoke, lying face down.

She'd blacked out after pulling the last broken off pipe from her middle, the resulting dizziness from the shedded blood weakening her enough to put her lights out.

But it wasn't curtains just yet. She was still sluggishly bleeding, but her back didn't hurt as much as her stomach did, so the Kyuubi had probably managed to mostly close the wounds on her back.

Hope filled her chest. If she kept healing like that, then maybe she could make it out before she lost too much blood.

 _'I've already lost too much.'_ She thought bitterly.

But if Naruto was going to make it out before she lost so much she couldn't survive, she had to get moving. She pushed herself up, pulling her knees beneath herself, grunting when her wounds made themselves known. But Naruto tried to ignore the pain, she wasn't succeeding of course, but it was helping her focus on moving.

She reached for her bokken, having dropped it when she lost consciousness.

Using it as a cane again, she hobbled slowly for the door that was closer than it had been several hours ago, proof of her progress in her current struggle.

She glanced up, noting the sky was no longer darkened and slowly lightening. Her last blackout had lasted several hours, it was probably afternoon.

Naruto bit her lip worriedly, grimacing at the coppery taste staining it. Still though, the blonde kept moving, slowly and surely, fighting through the torture of her injuries.

She drew closer to the exit, and her pulse escalated with both dread and hope. She was close. So freaking close.

She just needed to grab the handle and she'd be free.

Naruto reached out, with her red stained hand. The other barely holding her up with the aid of her bokken. But it was hopeless, because suddenly all the determination in the world couldn't get her those last few inches, and her legs gave out for good.

She could no longer feel them.

Naruto cried out in pain when she slammed into the floor, warm blood spreading in a slow halo from her.

"S-so cold…" She stuttered, shivering and curling in on herself.

But…

She was surprised.

"I-it doesn't h-hurt anymore…"

Her eyes began fluttering, drifting closed. She was numb, and near freezing suddenly but… it didn't hurt and—

"I'm so t-tired…"

"NARUTO!"

Naruto stared through half mast eyelids, her vision glazing over, blackness slowly creeping across her consciousness.

Hands.

Gentle, yet panicked hands framed her face, turning it so that she looked at the owner of those hands.

"Sh-Shiiiiiii…" Naruto slurred.

"Oh Naruto what did they do to you?"

Her perspective shifted, and she couldn't tell that it was because he had lifted her, swept her into his arms.

"Shisui…?" Naruto's eyes were nearly shut. "Shisui, 'm tired…"

"No." Shisui said firmly. "No, you're not tired Naruto. Stay awake, do you hear me? You've got to stay awake. I'm taking you to the hospital right now!"

"J-just for a little while…" She promised, whispering. "J-just a little…"

"Naruto!"

Her eyes closed.

It felt really nice.

* * *

Shisui didn't know what to expect when he finally made it to the warehouse that the cowardly homeless man had spoken of.

But he let himself into the door that had measly caution tape in front of it and nothing else to keep intruders out.

Again, he hadn't known what to expect, but it was not Naruto lying on her side in a steadily growing puddle of fresh blood, her clothes soaked in it and hands stained from when she tried to staunch her bleeding herself.

"NARUTO!" He choked, horrified as he rushed over to her, kneeling at her side.

He quickly assessed her condition, finding four holes punching straight through her abdomen. He framed her face with his hands, forcing himself not to panic because if he did that he'd do something stupid.

And by the looks of it, Naruto didn't have time for stupid mistakes.

He turned her head, her hazy blue eyes focusing on him and unfocusing repeatedly.

"Sh-Shiiiiiii…" She slurred.

He hushed her, thumbing a bit of blood off her lip when it trickled from the side of her mouth.

"Oh Naruto what did they do to you?" He asked sadly, slipping his arm behind her back and the other behind her knees.

He stood, gathering chakra and using the body flicker to travel as far as possible. He landed on a roof halfway to Konoha's main hospital, Naruto cradled in his arms.

"Shisui…?" Naruto drawled sleepily, her eyes nearly shut. "Shisui, 'm tired…"

Shisui teleported again, landing in front of the building, trying to stem his panic.

He was failing.

He was failing very badly.

"No." Shisui said, trying to sound firm to mask the way that his voice trembled. "No, you're not tired Naruto. Stay awake, do you hear me? You've got to stay awake. I'm taking you to the hospital right now!"

He rushed through the doors, ignoring the way the nurse at the front desk shot out of her seat in alarm, yelling something that he didn't care to catch.

"J-just for a little while…" She whined, voice nearly inaudible. "J-just a little…"

"Naruto!" He protested, fear roaring through him when her body slackened against his chest.

Her eyes were closed.

"HELP!" Shisui screamed, his eyes stinging as he kicked open the double doors to the emergency ward, rushing inside. "I NEED HELP!"

Several people darted out of the rooms lining each side of the hall, looking towards him with wide surprised eyes.

But as soon as their gaze fell on the unconscious bloodied girl in his arms, they got their noggins screwed on right and someone, a surgeon rushed over to him.

"Nurse!" The doctor barked.

"Yes Doctor." A woman replied, stepping up to Shisui, opening her arms.

The young boy gently placed Naruto into the woman's arms and the doctor left, striding further down the hall.

"Can you tell me what happened?" The nurse asked hurriedly.

"I dunno." Shisui rasped, his eyes stinging as warm liquid poured out of them. "But she was in an abandoned building, there were rusty pipes on the floor… I think she pulled them out."

The nurse nodded.

"Thank you. We'll do all we can for her."

The boy swallowed hard, watching the nurse leave, hurrying after the doctor.

Shisui watched fearfully, pulse thundering in his ears as they disappeared into a room on the right.

Even in his distressed state he knew he couldn't follow.

So instead Shisui stood for a long time in the same spot, hands and arms smeared with Naruto's blood.

He reacted violently when someone suddenly placed a hand on his shoulder, nearly breaking their arm when he reversed their positions so that the stranger was face down on the floor, captive arm forced between their shoulder blades.

"I'm just trying to help!" The person insisted hurriedly.

Shisui released them as if burned, stepping back, running stressed, shaking hands through his hair.

"I'm sorry." He said absently, not even looking at the person.

He was staring down the hall again, where the doctor and nurse had taken his friend.

Shisui bit his lip.

What would happen if his Sunshine was gone?

* * *

Two whole days went by and Sarutobi Hiruzen was still quite furious.

He could not believe the level of negligence his shinobi were capable of.

Admittedly, he should have assigned Naruto an Anbu guard, but she was much too keen. Hiruzen suspected that she had an abnormally developed sense for chakra.

She had never mentioned it again, but when she had been five, she'd asked him why people were always following her.

At first the Hokage had been understandably confused, wondering if villagers were harassing the poor girl, but when she had said _"No, you can't see them Jiji, they hide all the time",_ he knew.

He knew that he had to be very careful about how he handled Naruto's watch.

There were many reasons why she had to be watched. There were the obvious reasons. She was a Jinchūriki, something that all the adults in the village were aware of, and therefore she needed to be protected should anyone be foolish enough to attack her for her unfortunate circumstances.

There was the fact that she was not allowed to leave the village, though she was not aware of this, and should she ever try her guards were to bring her back, by force if necessary. And then there was the fact that her parents were notorious shinobi, something more expertly hidden, but should it come to light she would need all the guards he could spare, at least until she could defend herself. And then, back to her human sacrifice status, should anyone outside of the village try to kill or kidnap her, she needed to be protected from that.

But also, she was to be protected from the knowledge of what she was. She was not allowed to know what she was, at least not before she had solid bonds that could persuade her to stay or not betray the village.

By the time Naruto was a Chūnin she could probably be trusted with the knowledge of her burden.

But again, she was shrewd, probably in possession of incredibly high chakra sensing abilities, so Hiruzen could not afford to have Anbu follow her around so obviously without risking her finding out what she was. It was much too soon.

After all, there was only so much suspension of belief, even for a child. And Naruto would begin to question why powerful shinobi were ordered to watch her so carefully.

Even if Hiruzen wouldn't tell her why, he knew that she was clever enough to find out herself should she truly aspire to know.

Luckily for him, she hadn't, fearing what she would find, even though the old Kage knew that Naruto knew he was hiding big things from her.

So, to avoid Naruto knowing things before she could be trusted to know them, and before he believed her mature enough to handle the truth, he had crafted a system of sorts to make sure she was protected in a way that would not alert her to what was going on.

He'd taken the Anbu guard off of her, but stationed them around the places she was known to frequent. And then, beside the Anbu, there were the normal Jōnin that were always to patrol the streets of Konoha. They were also instructed to keep an eye out for Naruto.

But anyway, the Anbu did not leave when Naruto did.

No, they never followed, but they communicated sightings of her, and her wellbeing when necessary. They didn't speak though unless they found her to be in danger. Even so, it was agreed that if she ever went missing from an area, or failed to make it to her destination the operative assigned to that area was to report and search for her immediately.

It wasn't uncommon before young Naruto met Shisui for the girl to get into violent scuffles with local riff raff, leaning against a building to rest with bloodied knuckles, only to wake up in her bed, confused as to how she got there.

The Anbu usually patrolled the areas around Naruto's haunts to insure not to alert her of their true purpose, so even if she did sense them, she assumed they were simply watching the village, not her.

But something went wrong two days ago.

The Anbu operative stationed in her neighborhood didn't report her failing to turn in for the night. Why?

A simple mix up with paperwork.

The operative was a woman who had submitted a formal request to take a mission instead of watching Naruto that day, and the Anbu commander himself had approved it, assigning a different agent to watch the neighborhood until the usual one returned from her mission.

The substitute agent never got the assignment, so no one had been watching Naruto's apartment that night.

Meaning no one could report that she wasn't there.

Admittedly the shinobi lost sight of her, that in itself wasn't very alarming, the only time they needed to report that was if they couldn't find her. Since no one reported her missing after leaving Ichiraku's, no one knew.

Even so, a young Chūnin of eleven years old immediately noticed something was amiss because Naruto hadn't been where she said she would be.

Shisui Uchiha had succeeded where Sarutobi's elite had failed.

He noticed Naruto was missing. He hadn't assumed everything was fine when she hadn't been spotted in the village the day after leaving Ichiraku's for the night.

He had looked for her, and he found her bleeding to death in an abandoned building two blocks away from the usual area she walked through to get home.

So close, and none of his "elite" even thought to look.

They hadn't even noticed something was wrong.

Naruto could have _died._

Sarutobi shook his head, a grim look making the lines in his face all the more apparent.

He'd given all the Anbu trusted to watch her a thorough dressing down, and they were dismissed from service. Yes it was peace time, but shinobi were never sloppy, it was simply unacceptable.

There was a new set of operatives assigned to their task, and these agents were to report to each other every ten minutes so they all knew where Naruto was, what she was doing, and where she was going.

The only operative that remained the same was the one who had gone on the mission. Since they had done nothing wrong, they were allowed to continue their service as a special agent.

Now Sarutobi stood before Naruto's hospital room, having been notified fifteen minutes earlier that she was awake.

Two whole days she slumbered deeply, slowly starting to recover from her blood transfusion and reconstructive surgery. Her abdomen had been a mess. She'd needed a tetanus shot because of her prolonged exposure to rusty pipes, and her intestines needed to be rerouted after being scrambled. She'd needed so many stitches to put her back together and then close up the wounds Sarutobi couldn't count them on both his fingers and his toes.

But, she would make a full recovery.

At least that blasted fox was good for something if nothing else.

With a sigh, the old man cleared his mind, forcing tranquility to seep into his muscles and bones. Naruto was very sensitive to negativity, almost as if she could feel it. She'd had a terrible experience already and he just wanted her to be as okay as possible at this point.

The old man knocked on the door twice, letting himself into the room after a few moments.

Naruto tore her eyes away from the morning sky out of her open hospital window.

She looked tired, black smudges beneath her usually vibrant eyes and her skin a sickly parlor so very unlike her. Her hair was free, cascading down her back, long spiky bangs framing her face, about the only alive thing about her at the time.

"Naruto my dear girl, glad to see you're awake." Hiruzen greeted, giving her his trademark grandfatherly smile. "How are you?"

"Well, I feel like I was ran straight through the gut four times and left to die." The blonde deadpanned.

The old man grimaced.

"Fair enough." He allowed, clearing his throat a little awkwardly. "But, despite that I did bring you a bit of news."

"Oh yeah?" Naruto grumbled. "What's that?"

Hiruzen inclined his head a little, folding his hands behind his back.

"Well, you might be happy to know that since you've been asleep I tasked a squad to find out who was responsible for your current condition." He explained, continuing even when her eyes widened slightly. "To my surprise, this was unneeded because they all turned themselves in. Though I suspect your friend Shisui may have had something to do with that. We've taken custody of all seven of your assailants."

"You _what?_ " She breathed.

Hiruzen nodded.

"Yes, six of them were normal civilian citizens, but the seventh has had formal shinobi training, and was two years ahead of you in the Academy." The Sandaime explained. "I'd like to say I hated to put my foot down so firmly, but they are all facing adult charges of assault and battery, criminal negligence, and attempted murder."

Naruto looked at him with her tired, yet widely surprised eyes.

"Idate Morino, he was the Academy student, and the ringleader of your attackers." Hiruzen explained. "They stalked and planned to harm you severely, and then took things so far they nearly killed you. At this point, their futures are set for misfortune. Young Idate was banned from the ninja program, as this village has no place for a shinobi who would harm his comrades for his own gain."

"So you're saying…?" Naruto trailed off.

"That they all are going to jail for attacking you, nearly killing you, and then pretending like nothing happened." The old man confirmed.

"Oh." Naruto said quietly, finally looking away from him, staring down at her bandaged hands. They had been torn to shreds by her unknowingly, because she had been handling the pipes so roughly to remove them. "And Shisui helped?"

"There is no doubt in my mind."

"Hm." Naruto said, her eyes softening for a moment, before once again filming over with melancholy.

The Hokage pursed his lips, moving further into the room, so that he stood right beside the little girl.

She was only nine. Still a child.

 _'Minato… Kushina… I'm sorry.'_ The old man thought, his heart suffocating beneath his guilt, and his shame.

He should've done better by Naruto. Of course he had valid reasons for not always checking on her personally, being the leader of a military dictatorship, but that didn't stop him from feeling like he could have and should have done more.

 _'This poor girl…'_

"Jiji, what's the reason?" Naruto asked quietly, suddenly, like within she had been debating on whether or not she should speak up.

Hiruzen blinked, his gray brows furrowing slightly in question. That was awfully ambiguous, she could mean literally anything by that.

"Whatever do you mean Naruto?" He asked.

"The reason you feel guilty."

The old man was understandably taken aback. It didn't show though, he simply tilted his head slightly to the side, silently questioning her.

Naruto's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, and Hiruzen felt a tiny shiver go down his spine, because she very much looked like her father when she did that.

"You lied to me." Naruto stated, her eyes lacking their usual lively shine, resembling two cool, near dead pools of mourning blue.

Hiruzen's breath hitched slightly, alarm spiking within him, putting a rock in his stomach's pit.

"Naruto…" The old man began, uncertain. "Do you…"

"I know." She confirmed. "Everyone… they lied. Jiji… _you_ lied."

The old man's heart stuttered in his chest, his eyes going a little wide. Of course Hiruzen had been aware that Naruto knew he was hiding something. He'd always known she was aware of something. But to hear her say that she knew for certain… The Kage wasn't sure how he should respond. Whatever he had been expecting when he'd come to visit his favorite little blonde, it had not been this quiet fury, this unverbalized anger she so clearly felt, and was doing everything within her power to suppress.

It appeared that while she slept through her body's accelerated healing process, she'd had much time to stew in her thoughts.

Hiruzen swallowed.

"How…?"

"I met it." Naruto deadpanned, tearing her piercing, guilt inducing gaze away from his stricken form, studying her open window again. "When I was… when I was in _that place._ I fell asleep, and it was there. Inside my head, waiting."

The old man dragged in a shuddering breath, using it to steel his nerves. He moved a little closer to the child's bed, wanting to comfort her somehow.

"Naruto, my child you must understand that I… the village, we kept it from you to protect you."

The little blonde snorted a quiet laugh, sounding bitter beyond her years. And Hiruzen's failure weighed heavily upon his soul as a result. The fact that Naruto could sound like that and truly mean it was proof enough that he had not protected her.

The fact that she was in the hospital because she'd had _holes_ in her was proof that Sarutobi had failed.

 _'She met it, she said.'_ The old Kage thought, his eyes saddening at the sight of the defeated and angry child across from him.

The Sandaime would have to call Jiraiya back for a little while, if only to make sure the seal was intact. From what the doctors had told the old man, the fox had forcefully closed her wounds around the pipes that had injured her to stop fatal blood loss, so Naruto had suffered immensely trying to escape after regaining consciousness within that warehouse.

The fox had then worked to close her wounds again, but could only do so slowly, just enough so that she didn't die in a matter of minutes after reopening her wounds.

It appeared that her body had received all of the help possible for the moment from the Kyuubi, so she would just have to heal naturally from this point on.

"You're _lying._ " Naruto murmured, her fists clenching in the sheets around her legs, knuckles no doubt turning white beneath those bandages.

Hiruzen blinked.

"Naruto, what are you saying?"

"You didn't lie to protect me. You lied to help _yourself._ " She accused darkly. "But what I don't get, is _how_ it helps you."

The old man couldn't believe his ears. Of course in a way she was correct, he had kept Naruto's human sacrifice status a secret to benefit himself, but truthfully it was more so for the village that had been entrusted into his hands. But she was still mistaken, because that wasn't all. He had also done so because he really did want to protect Naruto.

Hiruzen shook his head.

"Naruto, no. That isn't true." He told her softly. "I lied because I wanted you to live like a normal little girl, like all little girls should be able to."

"But I'm _not_ normal." The blonde snarled, looking back over, her near dead eyes lighting up with temper. "I'm not normal, and almost everybody knew except for me!"

The old man pursed his lips.

"But why?" Naruto went on, her eyebrows scrunching in confusion and so much frustration. "Why me? _Why?_ "

 _'I'm sorry Naruto, I can't tell you that.'_ Hiruzen thought. _'I can't possibly tell you at this time who your father was. I can't. You aren't ready yet, you're much too full of pain and resentment.'_

"The Yondaime Hokage, he chose you because he had no other choice." The Sandaime explained, his voice low, forcing himself to meet her piercing gaze. "I'm sorry Naruto. I truly am. He wished for you to be seen as a hero, and I honored his dying wish by telling the village. But it had been too soon, the people the Kyuubi had caused great suffering... they weren't ready to know. And suddenly there you were, the perfect target for their hatred."

Naruto flinched a little at that, but the old man continued to explain, because he knew if he lied now when he had the chance to come clean about something he could come clean about, he'd lose Naruto forever.

"I then passed a law so no one could speak of what you are. The children of your generation, and some a little older aren't aware, but unfortunately that hasn't kept their parents or older siblings from telling them to stay away from you."

"He chose me because he had to huh?" Naruto scoffed, rolling her eyes and looking away again. "I don't have friends, I don't have a family, the people I trusted are liars, and there's a monster inside of me. But so what, right? So _what._ Because that's how it is, and nobody can change it."

The guilt was almost like a physical sensation, near unbearable. And Hiruzen felt every one of his sixty plus years.

"I'm sorry Naruto." He said again, uselessly.

The little blonde snorted again.

"Yeah." She muttered. "Me too."

* * *

Naruto hadn't felt much like talking after that. So Jiji had quietly excused himself, promising that they would talk again later.

But Naruto didn't feel like talking.

She had purposely reeled in her mental shields as tightly as they could go so that she didn't sense anything he felt while they talked, and she didn't want to feel the people that always loosely observed her.

 _'Well, now I know why those people are always there.'_

Watching the Kyuubi holder. Hm, she wondered if they were going to start watching her more closely now that something so messed up happened to her.

Naruto scowled at the direction her thoughts had taken, blinking because her eyes were stinging wetly, and she absolutely hated that.

She'd done enough blubbering in that wretched warehouse.

"Okay…" The blonde muttered. "Time to think about something else."

Naruto sat back, so she was laying down, staring at the bland hospital room's ceiling.

"I wonder… what's Shisui doing?"

The little blonde stiffened.

It was always him, wasn't it? Her friend.

Just like before, she'd gotten distracted thinking about him. If she hadn't of been so lost in her thoughts she could have avoided the whole delinquent confrontation by going around. Once she'd walked into the alley they had all moved around her in the darkness to the perfect points to ambush her.

No, it was nowhere near Shisui's fault Naruto had gotten hurt.

It was hers. She'd gotten attached, and it nearly costed her her life, never mind the fact that it was Shisui who had motivated her to try to escape when she had nearly given up. Never mind that it was Shisui who she thought about the most in general. Never mind that it was Shisui who had saved her life.

Naruto could at least admit to herself that she did not dislike Shisui. She had already acknowledged him as her friend, but that's what the problem was.

"It is… right?" She thought aloud. "That _has_ to be it."

But it was time to digress.

Being distracted like she had been, walking right into a trap… it wasn't something she wanted to make a habit of. What if Naruto actually started caring more than she already did? What kind of danger and unnecessary drama would she have to deal with because of that?

Things had been so much more simple when she was alone, when she didn't know what she was. Because of her inability to actually stick to her resolve, she'd spent too much time with the Uchiha. Naruto had already begun to change. She had hesitated when her first priority should've been making it to safety, and because of that she had ended up far more injured than the boy she had been targeting would've been.

 _'Idate.'_ Her mind supplied. _'He would've been fine, but me… I'm the one that got all messed up, because I chickened out.'_

While Shisui's philosophies may work for him, even as a shinobi… they didn't work for Naruto.

Naruto's world didn't spin that way. There was no possibility of changed hearts in the thugs that hunted her. She was a target, and if she wasn't tough then she'd get hurt, just like she had already.

Who's to say that she wouldn't end up in a grave instead of a hospital bed the next time?

 _'There won't be a next time.'_ She thought firmly.

No more.

There had been a time when Naruto was weak. A doormat for those who shunned her. She refused to return to that time. She had decided a long time ago that she needed no one but herself, and that it was her way and no other way. Her opinions and feelings were the only thing that should matter to her, because acknowledging others would just bring her pain. Whether it was intentional or not.

It was different with Teuchi and Ayame. Naruto didn't interact with them much outside of eating in their shop and chatting about nothing of importance. It was the same for Iruka-sensei. He checked up on her here and there, but he gave her her space. Even Hokage-jiji was a safe connection (or, he had been). But anyway, the point was, Naruto mostly knew what those "relationships" entailed.

All those connections… they were "safe". Safe-ish, because the Hokage was a liar, and he had made Teuchi, and Ayame, and Iruka lie too.

But again, it was time to digress.

Teuchi and Ayame were equally kind to her and all their customers. Iruka treated her fairly amongst his other students. Hokage-jiji was a grandfatherly figure to all youths, including Naruto.

Shisui… he… he did what he wanted. He asked about her, and told her about him. He actively tried to spend time with her. He actively seeked out her company.

It wasn't the same as the arm length connections she had with the few positive relationships she owned. It was unfamiliar.

And Naruto had already found that unknown to be dangerous.

 _'This is the last time.'_ Naruto gritted. _'The last.'_

No more.

She was going to thank Shisui for saving her life.

And then she was going to cut him off.

Even if that would hurt, it would probably be better in the long run instead of waiting for him to abandon her.

It was better for them both. Really.

It was.

* * *

 **You guys hate me now don't ya? *sticks out tongue***


	9. Two Breaking Hearts

**I don't own Naruto or the cover image.**

* * *

When Shisui first met Naruto, he knew.

He knew he had to hold his hand out for her. She had the same air to her as Itachi, his best friend and clansmen. Someone with energy like that, he just couldn't leave alone. By energy he meant the sort of feeling a person gave off, the impression he got about the of the type of person they were.

Itachi and Naruto had the same sort of feel to them. A lonely misunderstood sort of air that just made Shisui want to gather them up and coddle them and tell them everything would be alright.

Some of his older clansmen used to chide him for his "bleeding heart", as a shinobi had no need for one, but once they finally found that Shisui's nature was simply his nature they had thrown in the towel.

So, having a huge bleeding heart like he did, it was really no wonder Shisui had grown so quickly attached to his temperamental blonde friend. And attached he did become, and the boy could already feel that he was in deep, irreversibly so. Not that he'd ever want to leave Naruto behind anyways. He had a feeling that she would continue to surprise him as time went on, and he looked forward to it. To finding out how much there really was to his carefully guarded friend.

There had to be more, especially since his worry, his utter earth shaking fear had awakened something within him when he held her bleeding form in his arms. He'd lost his parents, but it was the fear of losing Naruto, of almost thinking that she was gone when she passed out from blood loss that pushed his eyes to the next level. He hadn't even noticed until after a nurse had asked him if he was alright, and why his eyes of all things were bleeding.

Shisui had to see her again.

After all the atrocities he had seen, after all the pain and fear he'd been dealt as a shinobi, it was the fear of her death alone that had awakened the dormant power that lied within most Uchiha.

Shisui hadn't even known he'd cared that much already. It was staggering.

And so, when he was brought news by one of his crow summons that his Sunshine was awake, he immediately went to see her, feeling the tight fist of uneasiness loosening around his heart, and knowing that the only way it would completely disappear, would be to see for his own eyes that Naruto was okay.

So that's why Shisui was getting a visitor's pass in one of Konoha's hospitals to see his blonde friend, who was resting in room 503.

The young man felt a small smile threatening to lift the corners of his lips at the thought of seeing his friend doing well again. He wondered how she would react to them being reunited?

 _'I wonder if she'll try to hide how she feels?'_ He thought worriedly, the almost smile fading away.

That's right.

Naruto was very strong willed, and she prided herself in having taken care of herself for as long as she could remember. How must she feel, being stuck in the hospital because she'd been jumped and nearly died?

Shisui pursed his lips, but he didn't have anymore time to muse on the subject, for he was soon to find out the answer to his questions.

How?

Well, he stood outside of Naruto's hospital room, so all there was left to do was knock. And he did. A muffled 'come in' was all the young Uchiha needed to be twisting the knob and entering the sterile white walls that housed his injured friend.

Naruto sat among bland white sheets, her smooth whiskered cheeks bare for once, and her wild sunshine hair spilled around her freely and across the bed. She was looking out of the window, out at Konoha, the buildings standing tall beneath the afternoon sunlight.

She turned her head, sky blue eyes more tired than he had ever seen. Her shoulders were slumped, her body clothed by a pale yellow hospital gown, and the faded color made her seem washed out.

Shisui's friend looked like she'd been rung out and left to dry under unforgiving conditions.

His heart squeezed at the sight of her.

"Shisui." She greeted quietly.

He hated it.

It didn't suit her, Naruto shouldn't sound like that. She should never sound so defeated, and utterly exhausted.

He tried to wrangle in his rapidly skyrocketing worry for her, moving closer to her bedside so that he was close enough to reach out and touch her. He wanted to pat her head, to tell her 'everything's okay'. But he wasn't so sure.

Things didn't look like they were okay, even if physically Naruto was recovering.

The Uchiha offered his friend a faint smile.

"Hey Naruto." He greeted softly, because he wasn't feeling much enthusiasm at the moment. "How're you?"

She looked away from him, shrugging. Shisui felt the loss of those blue eyes. And he didn't like it. He felt like something was coming. Something he would like even less than Naruto avoiding eye contact with him.

"I'm alive." She offered quietly. "And the Hokage told me that's 'cause of you."

Shisui clenched his fists at his sides. He knew it was irrational, but he wished he had been there to ensure she'd never been hurt in the first place. If he'd been there watching her back, those thugs never would have harmed a single blonde hair on her head. Yes he'd been on a mission, yes it was his duty as a shinobi to take said assignments and he'd had no idea that Naruto had needed him, but still. That didn't stop him from feeling like he could have and should have done more for her.

"Yeah." He settled on, a near whisper.

Naruto looked back at him, and Shisui nearly flinched at the utterly lifeless look in her usually expressive eyes. He watched with dread as she shifted in her hospital bed to face him, arranging her knees beneath her as she faced him fully.

Shisui could feel it.

He could feel that something was coming. That foreboding sensation that had been nagging him since he'd begun making his way to Naruto's hospital room flared up. His intuition told him that what had been making him so uneasy was about to be revealed.

Shisui stared utterly lost as Naruto bowed to him formally, her forehead pressed to the sheets of her bed the same way one's would to the floor if they were groveling.

"Naruto? W-what…?"

"Thank you." The blonde said. "Shisui… thank you for saving my life."

The boy's breath left him as gracefully as it would had someone punched him in the chest.

"N-Naruto. You don't need to… stop it…" Shisui stuttered a little. "Don't do that…"

 _'Don't bow to me!'_

Naruto didn't _bow_. She was too proud. This… this wasn't Naruto. And Shisui didn't know how to handle this unmotivated, broken thing in the place of his scarred, temperamental friend.

"Naruto, please get up." Shisui said when he gathered himself a little more. "You don't have to thank me. I just did what any friend would do, and I'm glad you're alright."

But she wasn't alright. A blind person would be able to see so. Though it was time to digress for the moment, as Naruto finally rose from her bow. But even so, Shisui found himself utterly floored yet again by what came next.

"Still, you saved me, and I'll never forget it." Naruto said blankly, staring somewhere over his shoulder. Shisui tried and failed to catch her gaze. "But… I think you should go."

The young Uchiha felt like the floor had just been yanked from beneath his feet, and he was left scrambling, plummeting into a deep pit of dread.

"What?" Shisui breathed, midnight eyes wide.

"I think you should go." Naruto repeated in the same dead tone.

"Naruto, what are you talking about?" The boy asked, brows furrowing in confusion as he moved a little closer, reaching out to touch her shoulder. "I just got here—"

He flinched when she pushed his hand away from her, negating the comfort he tried to offer instinctively. And damn, damn him if it didn't sting.

She was looking at him again, and she shook her head.

"Just go Shisui." Naruto murmured sadly. "And… don't come back."

 _'What?'_

His face contorted gently, because he didn't understand. Why? _Why_ was Naruto being this way? She'd thanked him for saving her, and she was behaving like most of the life had been siphoned out of her. Now she was sending him away and telling him not to return.

Why wasn't she happy to see him?

Of course she had every right to not be one hundred percent at her normal, considering she was recovering from a traumatic experience… but... that didn't explain why she was pushing him away. Hadn't he already shown her that he liked the place he'd made for himself at her side? Why was she threatening to take that away?

"Naruto…" Shisui began, hurt.

The blonde shook her head, simply moving away from him and further across her bed, pointing at the door.

"Leave please." She intoned.

Now, Shisui could definitely filter his words, and he could give a verbal run around as well as the next guy but he felt not speaking exactly what he thought and felt to Naruto would be a great injustice and disrespect toward her. He gave her his thoughts raw and uncut because she was raw and uncut and he knew even if she didn't always like what he was saying, she could at least appreciate that he was truthful with her.

He could already see that she had the uncanny ability to perceive the true meaning of something said, and even things that were not. Her perception would be scary if not so intriguing.

Shisui was curious. He'd been so since the very beginning. The boy just wanted to get into Naruto's head and see what kind of treasures she hid in there. Even if Naruto was being cruel at the moment, pushing him away after he'd worried himself near sick over her. Even if her dismissive and near lifeless disposition stabbed at his feelings, she was his friend. And it had never been in Shisui's nature to leave things alone when he set his mind on something.

All that being said, Shisui decided to do what he had from the beginning.

Tell the truth.

"I don't want to go, Naruto." He said, moving closer, seating himself on the edge of her hospital bed, despite the way that she tensed at him nearing. And man if that wasn't a slap to the face. She had no need to be wary of him. It was him. _Shisui._ Her buddy. He'd never hurt her. Heck, he'd nearly killed the boys that had put her in the hospital bed they both sat on, but had instead settled for forcing them to turn themselves in.

 _'Not that I'm really satisfied with them just going to jail…'_

"Why are you trying to kick me out, Naruto?" He asked softly, moving closer.

Shisui knew that she always flustered when he was that way. That is, sweet and kind in ways that he knew were unfamiliar to her. It was a subtle manipulation to get what he wanted from her, but there was no ill will in him for it. Shisui liked being sweet and kind to her, he wanted to be. It was simply a detail that he'd noticed, that being how she reacted more honestly towards him when he was his normal self.

And react she did.

Finally, the corpse-like stillness of her irises faded away, replaced by panic when he took her hand, trying to tug her closer to him.

"Stop it." Naruto snapped, pulling her hand away, denying him again.

Shisui pursed his lips, but he would not be deterred so easily.

"Why?" He asked.

 _'And there it is.'_ He thought.

The Uchiha's breath hitched, because Naruto was alive again. Her expression returned. But he hadn't wanted it like this. Didn't want the enraged glare she seared into his face. Didn't like the snarl threatening to bare her teeth at him.

"Because I don't want you here!" Naruto roared, pressing her back into the wall like a cornered animal. "I don't need you either! I want you to just leave me alone!"

It wasn't working.

His soft, complacent behavior was not what Naruto would respond to while so wound up. And Shisui realized then that she had been this way since he'd walked through the door. The sad visage she had shown him before was only one dimension of the storm that he was currently facing. And he'd freed everything by prying the way he had.

Still, even if what she was saying tore deep gouges out of his heart, he was relieved, because this was familiar. This brash behavior, the shrill fear of weakness and caring for another hidden just beneath the surface of her eyes… this, Shisui knew. This he could work with.

"You're wrong." Shisui denied firmly, mouth moving before he even knew what he was doing. "You did Naruto. Don't you see? In that building… you needed me. You needed my help."

 _'And I was there, and I'll always be when you need me to, because I'm your friend!'_ He thought, wanting desperately for her to understand.

But even as he thought this, he knew that his previously spoken words were the wrong things to say. Because despite his feelings, those words were the things she reacted to.

"Get out!" Naruto snarled, her eyes flashing red as she shoved him roughly. Shisui allowed her to, surprised by the shift of her eyes.

Shisui fell off the hospital bed, sitting on his stinging bottom for a few beats before he found himself again and stood. He had to try harder. Try until finally something _clicked_.

"Naru—"

"NO!" The blonde yelled. "I don't need you! I don't need _anyone._ You're not my friend, so stop acting like you are and get the hell out of here already!"

Shisui took a step back, his hand flying up reflexively, clutching the material over his heart as her words rained blows across its surface.

' _We're… we're not?'_ Shisui paused, shaking his head. _'No. That's not… she's just spewing angry words.'_

He was a full blown Chūnin, where would he be if he folded under every person that raised their voice at him and said unkind things? Besides, he was smarter than Naruto wanted to give him credit for. And he had never been wary of her temper before.

If she wanted to be ruthless with her words, he wouldn't mince his own either.

"You say we're not friends but we are." Shisui returned seriously, his expression grim as he released the fabric of his shirt. "When we were together you had fun. I _know_ you did."

He was unmoved by the indignant bristling Naruto was doing across from him.

"That's not—" Naruto began hotly.

Shisui wasn't going to have any of it. Not this time. This was too important.

"You think being alone and acting like a callous jerk makes you strong?" He went on, continuing on even though he knew he was crossing lines and crashing through walls Naruto wasn't ready yet to have him within. "It doesn't. It just makes you stupid because you push away the people that care about you."

"Watch your mouth Shisui!" Naruto spat in warning, her once blue eyes that same, angry vermillion hue. They glowed menacingly with her anger. But again, her temper had never deterred him before.

"No, I won't." He declared, surprising her so much that her mouth snapped shut with an audible _clack._ But the Uchiha wasn't quite done yet. He needed Naruto to see, to understand. Because even if he had been patient before, and would continue to be so should the situation arise, they couldn't keep doing whatever this was. They needed to come to an understanding.

Otherwise they'd just hurt each other in the end. And Shisui didn't want them to tear themselves apart when they'd be so much greater _together._

"Naruto." Shisui began anew. "You don't like how others treat you, but you're doing the same thing to me. You're not even giving me the chance to prove that I'm worth something. And that… that's not fair, Naruto. You're not being fair."

The young shinobi wasn't sure what he was expecting, if he was even expecting anything, but it certainly wasn't the bitter scoff Naruto replied with.

"Life isn't fair." She grumbled, and he sensed there was more to her words than she was outwardly letting on. "Didn't you know that already, Mr. big bad Chūnin?"

Shisui frowned, and Naruto crossed her arms.

"Now, you can leave or I can call the nurse to kick you out." She threatened.

* * *

He was wrong.

Naruto knew he was worth a thousand good deeds and smiles and happiness and warmth. He was a truly good person. She had figured that out from the beginning. He was a good person worth so much more than someone as pitiful, jaded, and useless as her. Someone with a monster inside of them. Was there even a difference between being a monster yourself and having one inside of you?

It didn't matter.

"Naruto, I'm your friend." The Uchiha said, crossing his arms as he frowned.

And Naruto knew. She knew that he was on the verge of understanding, but ultimately he was lost. He didn't know why she was turning her back on him, and if she had it her way, he never would. Why?

Because Shisui deserved someone who could be a true friend to him. And that was not Naruto.

And because she knew this, Naruto was determined to be cruel. It was better this way. She was right, and even if it felt inexplicably _wrong,_ she would do what she had to regardless.

"You don't know me." The blonde growled. "How can you say you're my friend?"

But Shisui, damn him and his too clever and sensible mind, always willing to compromise, to be the better of them both.

"You're right, I don't know you that well." He allowed, his eyes drilling into her own, nearly making her cave, nearly making her drop the facade. "But that doesn't mean I don't want to. That doesn't mean I haven't tried to. You just push me away, like you are now when you think I'm getting too close. What are you afraid of?"

Naruto quite honestly would have preferred to have been struck. That wretched question. Evidence that she was a pathetic weakling, because Shisui knew. He knew she was afraid, and Naruto simply could not have that.

"I'm not afraid!" She denied scathingly, lying, lying so obviously to Shisui and herself both that it turned her stomach. She didn't know that her eyes had changed to red previously, and so she was unaware of them returning to blue as she battled with her inner pain. "I'm never afraid."

 _'Liar. Lying liar who lies.'_ Her mind jeered. _'You're afraid of the Kyuubi. You were so afraid of that fox you could barely move.'_

"I'm not afraid." She said again, weakly.

She was running out of steam, she couldn't keep up the act for much longer. And why? Why was Shisui so horribly stubborn? Why couldn't he just… _why?_

"Not even when you were in the warehouse all alone?" Shisui asked quietly. "Weren't you scared then… Naruto?"

Her blood chilled.

Naruto remembered pain, and the taste of her own blood in her mouth. Remembered heart tripping fear like never before, because _she was going to die all alone._ She remembered calling out, only for her pleas to go unheard.

"Shut up." Naruto snapped, tearing herself away from those achingly fresh memories, hating how Shisui's eyes went wide, how she immediately felt his guilt, and care, and concern slam into her shields. "SHUT UP!"

"Naruto I—"

"Get out." Naruto ordered, glaring darkly. "Go away you bastard."

Shisui stared at her, his right hand twitching, as if he wanted to reach for her. They both knew that he went too far. Naruto was still raw, still reeling from being so close to death, still medicated from the pain killers that numbed the agony around her abdomen, which was swathed in bandages beneath her hospital gown.

"GO AWAY!" She screamed, squeezing her eyes shut and _wishing._

He went away.

Shisui finally did as she asked, and Naruto could feel in his raging emotions that his heart got heavier and heavier the farther he went.

* * *

Shisui stood before Shi no Mori, Konoha's infamous Forest of Death, staring listlessly into the behemoth trees and the ominous shadows they casted.

He sensed a distortion in the air at his left, slightly behind him. The young shinobi had sent out a chakra pulse, calling to the one who had been training in the forest, who answered, and now stood behind him after performing the shunshin.

The wild haired Uchiha looked down at his hands, noting that they trembled ever so slightly from the force of his emotions. Shisui sighed, forcing himself into a practiced calm. He turned, meeting eyes so very similar to his own as he finally spoke to his companion.

"Itachi… I… I'm lost."

* * *

 **I'm tearing these kids apart. Am I sorry? Hm...**

 **Any thoughts on the story so far?**


	10. We're Friends, Right?

**A/N:I just gotta say, I've been getting all these PMs for the last chapter saying "poor Naruto" and I was just cackling because literally what about Shisui? It's like he's the one that was getting crapped on last chapter. I dunno it just tickled me I guess.**

 **I don't own Naruto.**

* * *

Shisui sat beside his friend on a branch high up in a large tree somewhere within Shi no Mori.

The young chūnin had explained the situation to the younger Uchiha, leaving nothing out, save for the fact that he had awakened the next level of his sharingan when he thought Naruto had died in his arms in the hospital.

"So, this "Naruto", they're who you've been sneaking off to see?" Itachi asked, looking at the other boy expressionlessly.

Shisui sighed.

"I haven't been "sneaking off"." He muttered, but he did nod once. "But yes, I've been hanging out with her lately. I'm sorry we haven't had much time to train together or anything."

Itachi shook his head before saying, "I'm merely curious. That's all. Though you said she's been hurt gravely, and that for some reason she's pushing you away."

"Yeah." Shisui's shoulders slumped, his dark eyes fleeing skyward, flitting over the tree leaves scattered above them and the mostly hidden light blue of Konoha's afternoon sky. "I just… I don't understand, so I thought it'd help to hear the thoughts from an outside person looking in."

"I see." Itachi murmured.

Shisui looked back to his right, where his cousin sat at his side, their arms almost touching.

"So? What do you make of this?" The chūnin asked.

"Hm." Itachi hummed, near silent. "I can't say for certain, because I don't know this friend of yours, but it sounds like she's hiding something from you."

"Yeah, that's what I thought too, but she was so adamant about me leaving I couldn't get a word in edgewise so we could just talk it out." Shisui said, running a stressed hand through his wild curls.

Hearing the barely suppressed tightness in his friend's tone, Itachi looked over, eyeing the older Uchiha with those keen raven eyes of his.

"Shisui." Itachi called, soft.

With a sigh Shisui met his friend's eyes.

"This Naruto, she is important to you." Itachi said, slow, sure.

Shisui eyed Itachi for a long moment, and then he nodded, answering with an equally quiet, "Yeah. She is."

Itachi's eyes softened.

"Then you already know what you have to do." The younger said.

"She'll just push me away again though." Shisui said, lips pursing.

"You will simply have to be more stubborn than she is." Itachi shrugged.

Shisui snorted a quiet laugh.

"I don't know if I could manage that, but you're right." He said. "And I'll have to keep trying until we come to an understanding."

"Hm." Itachi hummed again. Shisui looked at him curiously, and Itachi smiled faintly with, "I don't think you were so lost after all."

"Hm, no. Maybe not, but I'm still glad you were here to help me stay on the right way." Shisui answered, giving his own faint smile.

"Now," Itachi began, catching the older's attention. "Are you going back today, or will you wait a while?"

Well, that had been a little fast.

"Can't you come with me?" Shisui whined a little, the melancholy atmosphere lifting for the time being.

Itachi rose his left brow at his friend.

"Despite whatever strange misconceptions you have going on in your mind, I don't enjoy third wheeling, Shisui."

"Aww, Itachi c'mon. I need you there for like, moral support."

"Did I not just give you moral support?" Itachi asked emotionlessly.

"You have to be near when I'm doing what you said for it to have full effect." Shisui explained, a grin threatening to spread across his face.

"That is ludicrous." Itachi deadpanned.

"What if I told you, you could do anything like a boss? I really believe that too. You could third wheel like a boss. Nobody would even call you on it."

"Shisui." Itachi spoke gravely.

"Hm?" He hummed pleasantly.

"Get out of here."

"You're mean." Shisui sighed, aggrieved. He could've _sworn_ he peeped Itachi rolling his eyes from the corner of his eye as he stood up from his perch to stretch.

Itachi stood on the branch as well, having too much poise to stretch in front of the older Uchiha.

"But seriously." Shisui said, looking at his friend when he was finished. "Can you at least wait for me outside? I'm not sure what to expect."

"I didn't think you would want anyone to witness what may happen." Itachi admitted, eyeing him. "Nor your friend. This is a personal matter, Shisui."

"I know that." Shisui said, frowning a little. "I'm the one who confided in you about this, so I know it's personal. I just…"

The younger Uchiha studied the chūnin for a long few moments, neither one of them breaking eye contact, nor hinting at the thoughts that were going through their heads to the other. After another long moment Itachi sighed, looking away.

"Alright." The younger prodigy murmured.

Shisui would admit, he did not try to stop his grateful smile.

* * *

She was a liar.

She was afraid of many things.

She was afraid of being a monster because of the sentient evil that lived inside of her.

She was afraid of dying a horrible death all alone, as she had learned after she found herself impaled in the warehouse.

She was afraid of making a true friend, even though that's all she ever really wanted besides family, because if she let herself care that deeply about someone else… What happened when they found out that she was a Jinchūriki?

Jinchūriki.

That word, that's what the Kyuubi had called her.

" _ **I am the great Kyuubi no Kitsune."**_ The fox had rumbled. _**"You are my Jinchūriki. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you become less pitiful. However infinitesimal the difference may be."**_

Naruto could only assume "Jinchūriki" meant something along the lines of "jailer for a bijuu". But digressing, Shisui didn't know what she was.

No one that had been little when she was born knew. That _lying_ Sandaime had finally told the truth and said so… but… what if they _did_ know…? How would they react?

No.

That's not what Naruto really wanted to know. How would _Shisui_ react? Would he be as afraid of her as she was of herself?

Naruto didn't want to know the answer. It was cowardly, she knew, and though she despised that there was nothing she could do to crush those feelings. And that's why, that's why when she sensed that chakra near... _his_ chakra, she stood, not knowing what she was doing other than _fleeing._ The little blonde's right bandaged hand went to her clothed middle, feeling twinges of agitated pain through the smog of her medication as she shifted in her hospital bed. Her little feet met the cold floor of her sterile hospital room, and she hobbled her way over to the door, her legs feeling weak after resting in a bed for a few days.

Naruto stretched her sense for chakra, estimating Shisui to still be in the lower levels of the building, probably checking in at the front desk so he could visit Naruto's room.

' _I was so mean.'_ She thought, her brows furrowing in equal amounts of guilt and confusion. _'Why did he come back? Why can't he just… stop caring?'_

Some part of Naruto's brain told her he would when he found out what a freak of nature she was.

' _He won't find out.'_ She thought, resolute. _'I won't let him know,_ ever _.'_

Naruto wouldn't give him the chance to show her such cold eyes, to reject her. If she cut him off now, swift and cutthroat, she wouldn't have to suffer like that. It would be better for them both. She already knew that.

Another part, a hopeful and stupid part told her that Shisui wouldn't do that, because he was _Shisui._ Kind, honest, friendly Shisui. A boy who didn't seem to have a true mean bone in his body. But even still.

Naruto knew.

People were kind and humane to others. Just not her, for the simple fact that she was _herself._

The same mouth that kissed a beloved grandchild would sneer and curse Naruto's birth. So yes, she knew. She knew that kindness was a beauty reserved for those who were not her. Not a _Jinchūriki._

The blonde's shaking hand found the knob of her hospital room door, and she opened it, looking this way and that down the oddly vacant halls before stepping out and silently closing the door behind herself.

Naruto went in the opposite direction that she knew Shisui would appear from, meaning she went further into the hospital. The blonde decided to go to the roof, hoping to wait the boy out and that he wouldn't try to look for her.

Maybe that was dumb, to try and hide that is, because he'd been on a mission and _still_ managed to find her alone in the warehouse. But Naruto didn't know what else to do.

She felt like hiding, so that's what she would do.

* * *

Shisui made his way to Naruto's hospital room with Itachi by his side.

When they made their way to her floor Itachi ceased his stride and waited by the stairs, allowing Shisui to make the rest of the trip alone, so as to give the two quarreling friends some privacy.

Shisui offered a small smile of thanks to the younger Uchiha over his shoulder. Itachi nodded once in acknowledgement. And with that, Shisui continued on his way. The messy haired boy stopped in front of Naruto's door, and he knew it was hers because he'd just been there a little over an hour ago before Naruto had run him off.

But he could sense that there was no one there. Even still, he let himself into the room and closed it behind himself, making his way over to the unmade bed near the large window. It wasn't open, so she hadn't gone through it, but it still had use for him.

Shisui stretched his senses.

He wouldn't say he was an expert sensor, but he knew Naruto's chakra signature, and she had an ocean's worth of chakra that she had yet to learn how to suppress. It didn't take long to locate the wild, warm signature that was all Naruto.

' _There…!'_ Shisui thought, hopping onto the side railing of the bed and then leaning over to slide the window open.

The boy climbed out, channeling chakra into the soles of his feet and calmly walking up the side of the building.

Either Naruto was getting some fresh air or she was hiding from him. He'd bet money on avoidance, since she seemed to have an unnaturally high aptitude for locating people she had no visual on.

After reaching the edge of the hospital roof and its safety fence, Shisui performed a swift shunshin to appear in front of the door leading to the hospital's roof, cutting off her safest escape route.

The boy's friend stood a ways away from him, her back to him, wild hair free and in a hospital gown with no shoes.

"I knew you'd come up here anyways." Naruto said, speaking solemnly towards the view of Konoha stretched out below them. "Even though anyone with a brain could tell I was trying to get _away_ from you."

The tone was off, but those mean words were all Naruto. It was kind of relieving to be honest, much better than the melancholy face she had shown him before.

"If you knew then why did you even try?" Shisui asked, slipping his hands into his pockets.

"I dunno." Naruto admitted, shrugging.

"I think you do." Shisui responded seriously. "So why don't you tell me. Because ignoring me and pushing me away isn't being fair, Naruto."

"I thought we already went over that, Uchiha." The blonde huffed, turning around and giving him a glare. But it wasn't that familiar anger that gave him pause, it was the sadness that she tried to hide that made him recoil slightly.

' _I just don't understand.'_ Shisui thought. _'What's the matter with you?'_

"Life isn't fair." Naruto stated.

"No, it's not." Shisui admitted. "But that doesn't mean you have to go out of your way to be a jerk too."

"You tryna pick a fight with me?" Naruto growled, taking a threatening step towards him. Though he didn't give her the satisfaction of reacting beside shaking his head slightly.

"You would like that, wouldn't you." Shisui said, sighing. "It'd be easy, for us to fight. But that's not why I came here Naruto, and you know it's not. I came here because I'm your friend, and I care about you. And I want to know what's wrong with you."

"You're not my friend so get lost already." Naruto huffed, scowling. "Why won't you leave? How many times do you have to get told off before you _get_ it?"

"I'm not going to believe that unless I get a real reason to." Shisui refuted resolutely. "You're just telling me to turn a blind eye when I know you're not okay. How can you ask me to do that?"

"I'm not asking you to do anything, I'm _telling_ you to leave me alone." The blonde spat, getsuring violently at the door behind him.

"And I'm saying that I _can't._ " Shisui said, remaining calm and levelheaded despite the fact that he could see Naruto's temper becoming more and more foul by the second.

He knew he wasn't being very graceful in his approach but at this point that wouldn't even work. Naruto wouldn't respond to anything more than him beating down whatever misconceptions she had.

"You're just gonna screw off anyway if I did tell you what's really wrong." Naruto said cynically, scoffing when he shook his head in disagreement. "You don't know anything, stupid Shisui."

"And that's why I'm asking, but you won't even be logical and explain." He answered, wrangling in his own rising frustration. "None of this even has to be happening. We could just solve this right here, right now."

The little blonde scoffed again and crossed her arms defensively. Shisui _almost_ wanted to yank his hair out, but he decided to take a slightly different approach instead.

"Let me ask you this, Naruto." Shisui said, sighing again. "If you were in my shoes, would you abandon me?"

"That's not the point!" Naruto snarled, shifting and running an irritated hand through her bangs. "You don't _know…!_ "

"Well how can _you_ be so sure then?" Shisui asked calmly, tilting his head at her shrewdly, watching her cheeks flush with anger as he cut her off and continued to ignore her arguments at every turn. "No, I don't know what's making you feel like this, but why are you so sure I'd ditch you if I did? Just _think_ Naruto. If I were you, and you were me, and you found out whatever it is that makes you think I'd leave you behind… would you leave me? Or would you stay?"

Honestly Shisui wanted to know. And it truly stung that she thought so lowly of him. Hadn't he proved already that he wanted to be her friend, that despite her flaws he still enjoyed being around her? Short of her being a murderer of innocents or some other nefarious wretch Shisui didn't think there was anything Naruto could do that would just make him outright abandon her.

"Why would you want to stay anyways?" Naruto finally exploded. "What do you get from it!?"

"Why are you not answering my question!" Shisui yelled back.

Naruto was stunned into silence.

The young Uchiha sighed. He'd tried. He'd tried _so hard_ to be sensible, but that was not working. If he didn't come at her with his honest to god feelings she'd probably never understand, and that was not what Shisui wanted.

He wanted to understand Naruto, and he wanted her to understand him in return.

* * *

Shisui… Shisui was _angry_.

He was angry at _her_. Naruto had never seen him make a face like that, never seen him run a stressed hand through his already messy curls. But then again what had she been expecting? She'd pushed and _pushed_ and this is what she got. She'd brought it on herself, and she knew that.

"What's the matter with you?" Shisui snapped. "I don't get it. How can you act like this, and say we're not friends when we obviously are? Why can't I talk to you and have you just listen? Why can't you just _listen_ to me Naruto?"

She opened her mouth, but for once she didn't know what to say. Naruto didn't know what falsely angered garbage to spew, so she said nothing. That seemed to be just fine with Shisui though, because he kept talking.

"You keep asking why, why, _why_? Well why _not_? Maybe I just want to be your friend? Did _that_ ever cross your mind?" Shisui asked. He wasn't yelling, he'd only done that once and after he simply asked her an abundance of things she just _wasn't ready_ for in that voice full of _temper_. "Did you ever stop to think, hey, maybe some people don't have ulterior motives for the things they do. Maybe they just do them for reasons they don't even fully understand. Hm? Did you think about _that_?"

They stared at one another for a long span of time, probably about two minutes, but Shisui didn't turn his gaze away from hers, he never did. And because what was happening was _happening_ , for once in turn Naruto couldn't turn away either.

' _What… what am I doing?'_ Naruto asked herself.

They both stared until finally courage scraped itself up within the blonde and she _answered_.

"I… _no._ " Naruto croaked, finally responding. "No I… I _wouldn't_."

' _I can't keep doing this.'_ The blonde thought. _'I hate liars, I hate people that hurt others just because they can. But what am I doing right now?'_

"What?" Shisui asked, temper seeming to deflate slightly.

It gave Naruto more courage to plow through the rest of her response.

"If I were you." She elaborated quietly, looking at him with sullen blue eyes. "And if you were me… I wouldn't leave you."

She knew. She knew that for certain, all the way down in the bottom of her heart and the deepest part of her soul she knew that if Shisui were in her shoes, she would not shun him. Be wary and fear him for what she didn't understand? Probably. The little blonde was only human after all. But ostracize him for something he couldn't control? Never. _Never_ would Naruto do that to someone.

"Oh." Shisui said, all the anger just seeming to drain out of him.

"And I…" Naruto choked, eyes stinging. "I was."

Her friend seemed lost at the appearance of her tears, looking at her with such a heartbroken and understanding expression she just _couldn't_ lie to him anymore. Couldn't lie to _herself._

"I was scared, Shisui." Naruto choked, shuddering. "I was _so_ scared. I… I've _never_ been so…!"

Tears spilled down from the broken dam that was her eyes, and she looked away from his lost expression, studying her own bare feet because she didn't know what to do either.

Naruto wanted to be angry that she couldn't drive him away, that he was seeing her at her lowest and weakest yet again. But a bigger part of her was glad. She was _so glad_ that Shisui didn't leave her behind.

"And I'm sorry." Naruto went on, eyes squeezing shut because she knew another flood would come if she didn't. "I was wrong."

She'd known that even as she told herself she was right. She was wrong to treat Shisui the way others treated her. Cruelly for things he didn't understand. How could she put another person through that? How dare she?

"I'm really sorry." Naruto choked, forcing herself to continue because she needed to stop being such a coward, stop only thinking about herself when there was someone who mattered to her for once more than herself. "I was mean, and terrible, and stupid, and I just…"

She trembled from the fierce force of her emotions. She gasped a little when she felt a hand on top of her head.

' _Again, even now he…'_

Naruto looked up, and Shisui was looking at her again. He wasn't smiling, no. He… he looked sad. So _so_ sad.

' _I did that.'_ Naruto made herself look, made herself face that truth. _'I put that sadness there.'_

"I was scared too." Shisui confessed, stroking the wild tufts on top of her head. "I thought… I thought you were going to die, Naruto. I thought I wouldn't be able to make it in time to get you here… and I just… when you were okay, I was so _relieved_ , but you didn't want to see me. You didn't want me around."

He looked like he might begin tearing up, but he didn't. He had more control over himself than that, so he pulled his hand away from her head, and took hold of the bottom of his shirt, lifting it up to tenderly wipe away her tears.

And it just… it just made them flow faster, and it seemed like they would never stop.

Because _how_? How could she, _Naruto_ , actually have someone care that much? Someone who feared the thought of her demise? Someone who could be hurt by her because they thought she didn't want them around? It's all she ever wanted, to care and have someone care in return. But now that she had it she didn't know what she should do with it. If she even deserved it. How was it possible?

How?

' _It doesn't matter…'_ She told herself.

All that mattered right then, was this. And this… this was not what pain, or loneliness, or hatred looked like. It's not what it _felt_ like at all. And so...

Naruto caught his hand, gently bringing it away from her face so that his shirt could fall back into place, stained with her tears.

"Didn't want you around?" She echoed at last, shaking her head. "That's… not true."

Shisui's midnight eyes widened slightly. Tentatively, he reached out, taking her other hand in his own. His hands were warm, a little calloused because he was a full blown chūnin, but also weirdly gentle.

"Naruto?" Shisui asked, his eyes searching hers. "We're friends, right?"

Naruto peered into his midnight eyes with her own sky blue, and she couldn't stop herself from nodding slightly even if she wanted to.

Their fingers laced, warm and connected.

"We're friends…" She whispered.

It felt like a huge weight had been lifted from the bottom of her heart, and the blonde exhaled in relief, not realizing that she had been carrying around a weight from refusing to verbally acknowledge her connection to her very first friend.

They just stood, hand in hand for a few moments, silently basking in the air of truth and comradeship flowing between them.

But the peace shifted slightly when Shisui pulled his hands from hers, and Naruto felt the loss of their warmth, immediately missing it. But when he wrapped his arms around her, and hugged her close, it was so much warmer.

And Naruto hesitated.

She truly did, because even then she was afraid.

But when Naruto finally wrapped her arms around Shisui in return, she learned then that tears were not only symbols of pain.

* * *

 **Hmmm, I'm not really satisfied with this. It seems rushed to me, but I'm not sure how to fix it.**

…


End file.
